Hidden Lives
by TeWahineAniwaniwa
Summary: Uzumaki Naruto and Umino Iruka are not who they seem. Naruto is smarter then he looks and hides his true self from his peers. Iruka may seem like just a chunin but you never know. Do not judge a book by its cover. SLASH, don't read if you don't like.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer- Do not own Naruto, if I did he wouldn't be as stupid. **

"_Thoughts" _

"_Yuk! I hate bloodstains," A masked person stumbled into an dark apartment window soon followed by another person taller than the first. _

"You know you shouldn't have done that last jutsu Kit," The taller person said, obviously male. The first growled.

"Shut the fuck up Ruka," Kit replied, taking off the mask and turning on the light. Ruka looked at his companion, who had his mask which was that of a blood red fox hanging round his neck. Kit was, at first sight, a really cute 9 year old, with golden hair that went to his shoulders and azure eyes. He was naturally tanned and had three whisker marks on each cheek. He stood at 3ft 9inches, with a lithe build. This innocent looking kid was actually an ANBU of the highest caliber, he was a sword master, and he had also mastered his father's Tai jutsu style and incorporated it into his own. His ninjutsu wasn't lacking either, elemental, non-elemental (Bushin, Henge, etc.) and medical, although he hated genjutsu. All in all he was an extremely dangerous child.

"I told you not to do that there was a cleaner way, but noooo you had to try out an experimental jutsu," Ruka said also taking off his mask and revealing a male who couldn't be more than 15. He stood at 5ft 9inches with shiny cocoa hair and chocolate eyes. Honey coloured skin and a body some would kill for. His one visibly scar was across his nose and didn't detract from his looks but instead seemed to enhance them. He too had skills that were extremely surprising and impressive for his age. Like his partner he was ANBU, named Shadow Killer, he commonly stayed in the shadows and took his enemies/opponents out using them. His mask was that of a black Dolphin.

Kit shook his head and went into the bathroom. Kit's ANBU name was Raging Kitsune, which is where his nick name comes from. Turning on the shower he stepped in still talking to Ruka who was leaning against the wall. Modesty wasn't a big thing for them as they were like brothers.

"I just wanted to do something fun for once and it was fun, except for the bloodstains," The boy's voice was tired and slightly bitter.

"Why? What happened?" Ruka's concern could be heard very clearly. Kit smiled at his brother's worry.

"I don't want to go back to the academy with those brats, they may be my age but they haven't seen the things I have, haven't done what I've done, they are so bloody immature and naive, which is going to get them killed!" he sighed, "But most of all I am sick of acting the idiot, with a smile on my face when people treat me like shit. I am Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto and I want to act like my self," Ruka sighed he knew it was something like this.

"I know how you feel Naruto, Pretending to be a chunin when I'm not, having to be sub-servant to those arrogant jonins. Being something I'm not, basically. To most people I am just plain old Umino Iruka, chunin, academy teacher and the only one who can catch Uzumaki Naruto after he has done something wrong." He said the last part in a teasing voice. "Anyway at least you were put up," He heard Naruto growl.

"Yeh, but only by a year and the teacher that is in charge is an idiot," he said tiredly as he wrapped a towel around himself and got out of the shower. Getting out of the way so Iruka could hop into the shower he went and got some nightclothes for the both of them. Although just Naruto lived in the apartment and Iruka had his own place, they both had some of the others clothes at both places as they regularly stayed at one place or another. Iruka frowned,

"Is the teacher giving you any trouble about Kyuubi?" Kyuubi was the 9-tailed fox that attacked the village of Konohagakure 9 years ago, he was sealed into Naruto by the forth Hokage. The forth wanted Naruto to be treated like a hero, but that didn't happen, the villagers needed a scapegoat and the "Kyuubi Brat" happened to be there. Iruka was just thankful that Naruto knew how to protect himself. The boy shook his head,

"Sort of, but I don't get it, this guy wasn't in the village at the time, he's a new comer from the Mist. Name's Katawa Mizuki," just then Naruto yawned it had been an exhausting mission, his third in fact as an ANBU. The third Hokage retook his role as Hokage as the Yondaime died when sealing Kyuubi. The third trained Iruka and Naruto from a young age and was the one to promote them to ANBU rank.

"Let's get some sleep Naruto, we've got a long day ahead of us," Iruka said, Naruto frowned.

"Don't you mean a long few years? At least until I finish the academy," he grumbled, The Sandaime had placed him on a mission in the academy, a lot of the ninja clans' heirs were in his new class and he was to make sure they stayed safe. Iruka was going to be their academy teacher in the classes final year.

Iruka picked the tired boy up and took him to bed, then going to sleep himself.

_(Four years later)_

Naruto yawned as his alarm clock decided to wake him up, he struggled not to reach over and bash it in, last time he did that Iruka had a fit when he saw the broken alarm lying on the floor and Naruto still asleep covered in blankets. Naruto rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he realised what day it was. It was finally graduation day, Naruto felt like cheering, he was still an ANBU and one of them best, but dealing with immature brats (completely disregarding the fact he was a year younger than the his graduating class) almost everyday was a pain in the ass and it tested his patience like no mission he had been on in the past four years. As he had a shower and got dressed he thought about who in his class he thought would graduate.

First there was Uchiha Sasuke; he was the rookie of the year, the best in the class. His looks and status made the girls crazy for him but his attitude was cold and unfeeling. Then Aburame Shino he was from the Aburame clan and they deal with bugs, Shino was a very quiet boy and always wore sunglasses. Inuzuka Kiba, or as Naruto called him Dog Breath. His clan had dogs for partners and Kiba was no different, Akamaru was his partner's name. Nara Shikamaru was another heir from a well known clan, the Nara's specialized in Shadow jutsu and Shikamaru was no different, he was an extremely lazy and extremely intelligent young man who loved cloud watching. Next was his best friend Akimichi Choji this guy was large and loved to eat, like all Akimichi's he specialised in jutsu which made him into a human boulder. Those were the only males Naruto could see actually making genin at their current level.

The females in the class were pathetic, almost all of them were only in the academy because of Sasuke. The only three from his year he could actually see graduating were Haruno Sakura, Yamanaka Ino and Hyuuga Hinata. Sakura although being one of Sasuke's biggest fans was really smart and if not put on a team with the broody Uchiha he could see her becoming an excellent ninja. Ino was the president of the Uchiha Sasuke fan club, but was skilled in her use of her family's jutsu, which had to do with the mind, if Ino pulled her head in she could become a fantastic Interrogator. Hyuuga Hinata could become a legendary healer if she chose it, with her kind nature and Byuakugan all she needed was confidence. She was painfully shy and rarely spoke. Last of all was Uzumaki Naruto, his 'mask'. Naruto had an clown mask on unless it was in private, this mask was that of an idiot, he acted like a prankster and all-around goof off. He wanted to just pass and then disappear.

Running out the door he sped to the academy and got there 5 minutes before class. He saw that many of the others were there. Quickly finding a seat he didn't see who he had sat next to. He found out soon enough.

"Ino-pig! I won I get to sit next to Sasuke-kun!" A pink and red blur sped into the room, closely followed by a yellow and purple one.

"You cheated FOREHEAD!" The blonde said, stopping next to the girl with pink hair and a red dress, the blonde's name was Yamanaka Ino she was wearing a purple outfit that she had bought especially to impress Sasuke-kun. She scanned the classroom for her love. Sakura was the pink haired girl's name and she too was scanning the classroom for _her_ Sasuke-kun. Naruto looked up as he felt weak killing intent from across the room, it was Ino and Sakura glaring at him as if they wanted him to spontaneously combust, he backed up a tiny bit and saw that the glares got deeper saw he turned around to see why they were glaring at him and saw who was next to him. It was Sasuke,

"Oh shit," he whispered and made to stand up just as the two girls rushed at him screaming like banshees, he turned to get away from their claws and got shoved into Sasuke who had also turned to see what was happening.

"_Fuck!" _Naruto thought as he fell into Sasuke. Sasuke himself was wide eyed as Naruto fell on him.

"Crash!" as the boys fell onto the fall, _"Kami must hate me" _Naruto thought as his lips landed on Sasuke's. It took both boys a second to come to their senses and they sprung apart spitting and coughing. Naruto felt the death glares from before get stronger he turned around and saw all of the girls in his class, excluding Hinata glaring at him, before pouncing.

Iruka (now 19) was having an excellent day; he and Naruto had finished a really easy mission the night before and had gotten an almost full night sleep. He already graded everything that needed to be graded and everything was going his way. Until he heard the screams coming from his classroom, he groaned, _"Should have know it was too good to last," _he thought as he went in to see…

Naruto hanging from the ceiling fan with his legs dangling as the girls in the class were trying to reach for him and were screaming very vulgar things. Something about Sasuke, a kiss and that Naruto was going to die. He put his stuff on his desk with a loud BANG and watched everyone realized their teacher was in the room. The Kunoichi to be were red faced as they sat down. Naruto however was still hanging off the fan. Iruka growled as he walked over, grabbed the boy's leg and pulled him down into the desk next to Sasuke Uchiha. Naruto groaned as he saw Uchiha next to him again and then again at Iruka's next instruction,

"Naruto you will seat that seat the whole lesson do you understand?" The sensei did not look happy, Naruto nodded meekly. The rest of the lesson went off without a hitch, if you discount the Sasuke fans whining because they did not get to sit with Sasuke-kun. Sasuke was getting quite sick of it and although he didn't show it was glad someone other than his fan girls sat in the seat next to him. As soon as the bell rang everyone bolted out of the classroom, well almost everyone. Naruto stayed behind as he knew that Iruka would want to know about the scene he walked in on. Quickly explaining the scene he grew red as Iruka doubled over.

"It's not that funny," he snarled at the sensei. Iruka just laughed while Naruto grumbled, "Your first kiss taken like that! I think it was Sasuke's first kiss as well,"

"Yeh, yeh get over it," he said before storming outside.  
Coming back into class after the break was an interesting experience, the fan girls were still glaring at him and Sasuke was looking particularly frazzled. All throughout lunch they had been pestering him. "Sasuke-kun, do you feel okay?" or "Sasuke-kun that Naruto is such an idiot, isn't he?" and the weirdest one was "Sasuke-kun, would you like me to help get Uzumaki germs off you? I bet I could make you feel better," the girl then attempted to glomp him. He pushed her off, violently. Those high pitched voices gave him a headache after a while as it would anyone.

The day went on quickly, everyone was waiting for tomorrow. The Genin exam was then and everyone was anxious to pass, except of course Naruto. He was ordered to pass by the Hokage and he would be placed on a team and go through the Chunin exams.

Iruka sighed in relief when he let the class out for the day. They had been more horrible than normal thanks to the exams. He saw Naruto waiting for him after the rest of the kids left and frowned they weren't meant to meet until tonight. Naruto grinned nervously and rubbed the back of his head.

"The fan girls are waiting outside for me," he said by way of explanation. The sensei glanced up, out the window. Sakura and Ino were indeed waiting for someone, he frowned.

"Naruto, you want me to walk with you home?" Naruto nodded sheepishly. Iruka picked up his stuff and followed Naruto out of the school building.

Sakura and Ino saw the blond haired boy walk out of the building, their eyes lighted up and they smirked viciously,

"Oh Naruto!" they yelled, and then they saw who was behind Naruto. Turning red under the stern gaze of their sensei they quickly ran off, Iruka just shook his head and led Naruto to his apartment for dinner.


	2. The Genin exams

**Disclaimer-I don't own Naruto and never will :(**

**Sorry I haven't updated in a while, but my sister got us both banned from the computer for a week. This was meant to be up last Friday :P**

**2. The Genin exams**

The next day was the exams; Naruto was surprised to feel butterflies flying around in his stomach. "Guess I am actually nervous," he mumbled before lugging himself off to have a shower. When he got to class he could see everyone had gotten there early, which wasn't shocking in the least. After Iruka arrived they went straight into the exams. Iruka would be one of the ones testing and Mizuki would be the other. Naruto and Iruka were always wary around the other sensei, the bad vibes he gave off were making him suspicious in their eyes, not to mention the fact that he hated Naruto and yet arrived from the Mist when Naruto was 9 and the rest of the kids his class were ten.

They were going in alphabetical order and out of the ones Naruto thought would become Genins, Shino was first, then Choji, etc. The tests were in a set of four, a weapons throwing test, a genjutsu test, a taijutsu test and a ninjutsu test. When it was Naruto's turn he hoped up and went into the adjoining room. The genjutsu test was first, on the table there was three kunai but one of the kunai was actually a shurikun. They had figure out which was not the kunai and dispel the jutsu. Naruto found it easy and Genjutsu was his weakest area, he was okay at dispelling them, but absolutely sucked at casting them, on their missions Iruka as the one who would always do the genjutsu.

After that, was the weapons throwing test, he was led outside and Iruka gave him five kunai. He had to at least all the targets, "_How easy are these tests?" _ He thought, making sure not to seem to good he got all the kunai near the bulls eye and one on it exactly. Mizuki gritted his teeth as Iruka passed Naruto for the two exams. For Taijutsu the student had to hit the sensei at least once during an allocated time limit. It was Iruka against Naruto, the latter could see just how much the former was holding back and the other could see him holding back as well. They would have gone full out if it was just them, but Mizuki was there and they didn't trust him one bit. Iruka had given Naruto his tests and marked them fairly as he knew Mizuki's hatred for the Kyuubi would make him biased against Naruto and probably fail him which was something they did not want as the Hokage had ordered Naruto to pass as an average student and nothing more.

Naruto managed to hit Iruka half-way though and the third test was over, Mizuki looked so disappointed, Naruto almost laughed. The forth test was the one Mizuki was looking forward to, it was very common knowledge that Naruto could not produce a passable Bushin, which would drag his mark down and depending how he did on the others jutsu's could be enough to fail him, as a student could not fail any of the tests otherwise they would be sent back to the academy. They could do poorly but as long as they passed it was okay.

When going back into the classroom, they encountered the Hokage out on a walk. He decided to join them for the remainder of the testing. The first jutsu he had to perform was the Kawarimi jutsu. He did it flawlessly, just as expected. After all how else did he get away from the shinobi and ANBU after a prank. For the henge he did just as expected. Mizuki was pissed, Naruto had passed everything so far and even if he stuffed up the bushin no jutsu it wouldn't be enough to hold him back. _"If only I could get my hands on his test papers, but no the Hokage had to get an impartial marker and put a genjutsu on the names and handwriting. Not to mention I can't sabotage the demon without the Hokage knowing and the Kyuubi brat has him under his control." _ He glared at Naruto as the boy prepared to do the clone jutsu, but the look gave way to one of confusion and glee as Naruto asked to perform a different jutsu.

"Impossible, Iruka-sensei the bushin is the jutsu he has to do. As you well know that refusal to do any part of a test equates to automatic failure." He looked smug. Naruto and Iruka glared at the infuriating man. The third hokage chuckled.

"Mizuki-sensei, calm down. Naruto has my permission to perform a different jutsu as he cannot perform the bushin."

"Why not, is he too weak?" Sakura yelled out from the crowd in contempt, the third laughed even louder.

"Oh Kami-sama no, not at all. Quite the opposite actually, he has too much chakra to perform the simple E-rank jutsu. I taught him a variation which is what he will perform." Mizuki went back to glaring at Naruto, joined by a lot of his classmates. Mainly the females who thought if Naruto couldn't perform the jutsu how come Sasuke could? Sasuke was the greatest in their minds, the males were glaring at the fact Naruto obviously had more chakra then them as they could perform the jutsu. Iruka just gestured to Naruto who went through the hand seals and shouted,

"KAGE BUSHIN NO JUTSU!" there was a puff of smoke and suddenly there were 10 more Narutos'. Mizuki growled as he turned towards the Hokage.

"That is a B-rank jutsu! Why did you teach to him?" he pointed to Naruto who was smirking, "When you could have taught to Uchiha Sasuke," the fangirls of the youngest Uchiha cheered as Mizuki ended his tirade. The third went still and let out a small amount of Killer intent towards the teacher,

"Is there a reason why I could not teach Naruto the shadow clone jutsu? He is perfectly capable and considering the fact he is not able to perform the other jutsu I thought it would be perfect for him." the Sandaime arched an eyebrow, "Are you disregarding my judgment Katawa Mizuki?" the sensei gulped, "I-i, No Hokage-sama. I was just wondering why you did not teach Uchiha Sasuke the technique as he is the rookie of the year," the man stammered though his explanation. He heard a snort from behind, "Sasuke-san can do the original technique and he has neither the chakra control to perform the Shadow clone jutsu nor the amount of chakra needed to perform the jutsu with his current level of chakra control." Iruka explained quickly and quietly, seeing the Mizuki was about to interrupt again the Sandaime was quick to interfere,

"Iruka, Mizuki cool it. Mizuki if you can not continue supervising these exams without bias you will be removed, Iruka stop tormenting the man," he mock glared at the undercover ANBU who shrugged carelessly, he didn't really care. He decided to take charge of his disrupted classroom; clapping his hands he grabbed everyone's attention.

"Now class calm down, CALM DOWN!" he yelled when the class didn't listen, "Naruto you pass, next person up,"

Mizuki grumbled as he left the academy for the day, _"that Demon brat shouldn't have passed; now I will have implement the plan by myself, Orochimaru better reward me well for this."_ The sensei sped home to prepare for his 'mission'.

Later that night a figure stole into the Hokage's office and into the room behind it, the room was fairly large but most of the space was taken up by scrolls of various sizes and colours. Looking around the figure saw the scroll that was wanted. It was a fairly big scroll with seals running up and around the parchment. Grabbing the scroll, the thief didn't notice that there was no visible traps and concentrated on getting out of the Hokage Tower. The thief tripped many of the traps hidden within the room and alarms were sounded. _"Shit"_ the figure thought as he ran towards the village gates he was in the forest when two figures landed on either side of him. The Blood red fox and black dolphin masks were chilling in the moonlight and very recognizable. Raging Kitsune and Shadow Killer were two of Konoha's most well-known ANBU and known as the most vicious, always getting their target no matter what. The thief gulped as the two took out their standard ANBU issue Katanas. The taller one stepped forward.

"Katawa Mizuki, you are charged with attempting to steal a forbidden Scroll, handing information out to enemies, treason, breaking and entering. The Hokage allowed us to deal with you," Mizuki paled drastically, he was screwed. He turned and started to run, but no matter where he went one of the other shinobi's was there. Out of no where he felt a kick to the back of his head and flew into a tree. He saw the two coming closer as he lost consciousness, before it went black he heard one of them say,

"Weakling. Prejudice is a bitch, but being a traitor? How disgusting."

The two ANBU had gotten the scroll back and Mizuki was unconscious in their 'tender' care. Dropping his body off with Ibiki they went to report to the Hokage and return the scroll.

"Excellent work you two," the Sandaime said, "You can go home and rest up for tomorrow, you're assigning genin teams tomorrow Iruka," the one with the Black Dolphin mask groaned,

"Don't remind me, I'll need to get earplugs when the majority of the girls find out they are not in Uchiha Sasuke's class," Iruka scowled behind his mask, he hated the squealing of Sasuke, that many high-pitched voices is really annoying. The Hokage chuckled as he dismissed the shinobi.

"Team 6 is Sakina Ryu, Sakina Kai and Rimoto Mino." Iruka was reading at the names of the teams and could see the disappointed faces of the girls who were already in teams, he rolled his eyes and continued; glad he bought those earplugs. "Team 7 is Uchiha Sasuke," he had to stop as the fan-girls in his class cheered, " Uzumaki Naruto," the boy groaned, " and Haruno Sakura," The girl started screeching in happiness, teasing Ino who was yelling right back at her, the rest of the girls were crying and screaming while the boys felt sorry for Naruto. Naruto himself banged his had on the table, _"Why me, Why?!" _he cried in his head, he was stuck with the cocky Uchiha and his number one fan-girl. Iruka winced at the look of despair on his friend's face and knew it would get worse when he found out who his sensei was. He read out the rest of the names and soon enough the other teams sensei's arrived, but Team 7 was left alone after a couple of hours. By now Naruto had guessed who his sensei was as this one was the one who had a reputation of being late, sure enough after 2 hours the door creaked open. The sensei took one look at his glaring students and rolled his eyes.

"Meet up on the roof," he drawled and puffed away in a cloud of smoke, the three genins trudged up the stairs growling and groaning all the way. Upon arriving at the meeting place they saw their sensei leaning against the railing.

"Why were you LATE!" The pink banshee (as Naruto had 'affectionately" named her) screeched. The three males winced as their hearing was decimated.

"Maa-Maa, now why don't you tell me about yourselves, your name, your likes and dislikes, your dreams and ambitions," Naruto growled and the sound alerted his team mates,

"Why don't you start, _sensei_," the man shrugged, "I'm Hakate Kakashi, I have likes and dislikes. I had a dream last night and my ambition is none of your business. Next up, pinky," he gestured towards Sakura. She looked at her sensei, he had silver, gravity defying hair and most of his face was covered.

"Well, I like reading and," at this point she squealed, "I dislike Ino-pig and Naruto-baka, my dream is..." here came another squeal, "And my ambition is to be Mrs. Uchiha," she smiled dreamily at the disgusted Uchiha heir.

"Mmm okay then, Broody your next," Sasuke glared.

"My likes are none of your business, I have many dislikes and my ambition is revive my clan and kill a certain person," he ended with another glare. Kakashi sweat-dropped.

"Anyway moving on, Blondie you're next," Naruto growled at the one-eyed man. He thought about it for a moment, he was really tired of acting like a fool. He had been sick of it from the moment go.

"I like Ramen, Iruka, Sandaime and training, I dislike those who are biased and discriminatory, and I really hate perverts and the three minutes it takes for Ramen cook. My dream is to be acknowledged and my ambition is to be the best." Sadly Naruto's love for Ramen was real and not made up, no-one would be able to eat that much Ramen if they didn't love it and not even someone who had to hide themselves like Naruto. Kakashi nodded at Naruto.

"Okay then, tomorrow we will have a survival test," he had a one-eyed grin at the looks on his students faces,

"What! But Sensei we had survival training at the academy," Sakura yelled, _"Go can't that girl talk quieter," _Kakashi rubbed his face,

"This is to see if you have what it takes to become a genin, the academy showed if you had the potential," he looked sternly at his students, "There is a 66% fail rate," there were gasps from the kids, he didn't hear clearly enough to notice one of them was fake.

Naruto was so close to just falling asleep, Iruka had already told him all of this and he also knew that Kakashi had never passed a team and that the test was about Teamwork. He had no idea on how to make his teammates useful in this test as Sasuke would go at it alone and think that others would just slow him down, whereas Sakura would do anything Sasuke says and already hated Naruto. He glared at Kakashi who was looking at his potential students.

"Now don't eat breakfast tomorrow morning or you'll throw up. Meet me at the bridge at 5am. Ja ne." Their sensei sped away in a cloud of smoke. The kids sat there for a moment thinking about what he said. Sasuke got up slowly and walked away, no emotion on his face. Sakura had a quick conversation with 'Inner Sakura' before noticing that Sasuke was going and running after him. As the pink blob latched on to the Uchiha, Naruto could hear her talking.

"Sasuke-kun you want to go to see a movie?" her tone was unbelievable pathetic, _"And she is said to be the smartest in the class!!!!!" _he was disgusted by the wannabe Kunoichi. It hit him suddenly, to complete the mission the Sandaime gave him he had to become a chunin with the team he had! He left to go and 'talk' to his adopted brother.

"So what do you think?" Iruka looked at the pleading boy in bemusement.

"You want me to what?" Naruto stared up at him, silently growling at the height difference. Iruka had managed to hit 6ft 1, but Naruto was 5ft 3 and was extremely envious of him.

"Can you please, please, please switch me with someone else. I really don't care who, but anyone except the team I'm on now. Sakura is a Sasuke obsessed fan girl who is extremely weak and unmotivated, Sasuke is a brooding wanker and Kakashi is lazy, perverted and reads porn books." the puppy dogs were in full blast. Iruka slowly felt his resolve melt. _"No! I will not cave under the puppy dog eyes!" _he thought to himself and stood his ground.

"I am sorry Naruto but I cannot change the teams unless there is a death and you will _not_ kill anyone," Naruto's face fell and he pouted, well glared but to Iruka it looked like a pout. "Cheer up Kit, we have a mission tonight, the Sandaime said that we have to eliminate some missing nins that are causing a lot of trouble in some of the smaller villages." the change in Naruto was extraordinary he was extremely happy to be killing missing nins. As they were talking a bell sounded throughout the village. The two looked at each other and went to the Hokage tower, releasing the henges that dulled their looks and transforming into their ANBU gear.


	3. where is the scroll

**Disclaimer: don't own Naruto and never will. :(**

** is the scroll?**

When they got to the tower, they could see that most of the shinobi within the village that were jonin and above were there as well, the two took a place at the back. The Hokage himself looked his years as he addressed the assembly of ninja.

"Last night as you know, Katawa Mizuki was charged with stealing a forbidden scroll, thanks to Raging Kitsune and Shadow Killer we caught, but it seems that Mizuki was a distraction. After he had left the Scrolls room another person must have gone in and taken one of the other scrolls. He didn't trip any traps because they needed to be reset after Mizuki. The scroll taken was Bloodlines scroll," he saw confusion on the faces of most of his shinobi, but horror on the faces of those who understood. Iruka stepped forward, the way parted for him.

"Who do you think would take _this _scroll," Iruka had never approved of having such sensitive information written down, what if someone stole it he had argued and now he was right. The Sandaime frowned,

"Wait, what is the Bloodlines scroll?" one of the jonin asked,

"The Bloodlines scroll, has all the bloodlines Konoha houses, written down. A full description of each one, strengths and weaknesses included," now all of his shinobi had look of horror upon their faces. "The main suspect is Orochimaru. We have found out that he was the one who Mizuki was consorting with and he had offered him a chance to be immortal apparently. Mizuki believed him and he didn't know that he was the distraction. All those who are not going on missions will be searching for clues." He then dismissed the horrified shinobi. Naruto and Iruka stayed behind,

"I told you not to write that scroll, Hokage-sama." the old man glared at Iruka.

"I am fully aware of your disapproval, Shadow but there is nothing I can do now." Naruto looked at his leader.

"We don't have to do this mis-"

"You are doing the mission, you were specifically asked for as the daimyo wants to send a message to those who attempt to harm his people. You will join in with searching after you complete this mission," Iruka and Naruto nodded sharply and disappeared in two puffs of smoke.

They reappeared in front of the gates leading out of Konoha. Iruka held out a map that Sandaime had given him when he was briefed for the mission.

"It'll take us 2 hours to reach where the report says the missing nins base is. So let's go." Naruto quickly memorized the route and then they were off. Hopping from tree to tree, Naruto let his mind wander as his body kept up the pace.

"_Why do I have to be stuck with those three?" _he kept thinking over the day. Going over everything that had happened. He just did not understand in the slightest why the three of them had been assigned to the same team and with Kakashi as a sensei. Sakura did have excellent control over her chakra, but that was only because she didn't have very much of it. Sasuke was mainly a ninjutsu user and specialized in his family's fire techniques, he was also cold and distant unlike Sakura who was usually very cheery and annoying. Kakashi specialized in Genjutsu, what with the eye of his and was very lazy and always late. Naruto, well his mask was loud and annoying, his facade didn't use many ninjutsu and he really did suck at genjutsu. _"I understand that we have complementary styles, but why?" _Because of his upbringing he didn't understand that the Sandaime had put the four of them together to help each other. Kakashi needed to get over the death of his own genin team and move on. Sasuke needed to be brought out of his shell and Sakura needed to learn that Sasuke wasn't perfect and she had to tone down her behaviour as it was not fit for a shinobi to be so ridiculous and infatuated. Naruto was put on the team to help Sasuke lighten up as Sakura would be no use in that department until she got over him. It was mainly that the third that thought they could help each other become stronger and better ninja that they were stuck together.

"Naruto, we're here," Iruka shook the silent boy. Naruto jumped up, startled.

"Don't do that Ruka," hand over his heart. The other frowned,

"You wanna talk about it Kit?" the boy shook his head and indicated that they should go on. Iruka led the way towards where the nins had apparently set up. Both ANBU instinctively suppressed their chakras to that of a small animal as they silently walked. As the trees began to decrease a make-shift camp could be seen through the gaps. The two jumped high into a tree and observed the occupants of the really mini-village. There were around 20-30 missing nins and all of them were around high-chunin to low-jonin level. Shadow Killer and Raging Kitsune looked at each other and smirked beneath their masks, _"this is gonna be easy" _both of them thought. Shadow jumped down from the tree they were standing in and hid nearer to the camp. Most of Shadow's attacks were shorter range, while Kitsune preferred a more long-ranged assault.

Shadow waited quietly for his chance, it came soon. In the form of a drunk nin, he rolled his eyes that the carelessness that these nins potrayed. He was about to attack when he noticed something weird about the hitai-ate the guy was wearing, looking around he saw that almost all the nins had hitai-ates and that all of them seemed like they had a little ball of chakra stuck to the crossed off symbol of their home village, _"Almost like a ...Genjutsu!" _he had his eyes back on his drunk target who was stumbling around. Using a variation of the Naras famous technique Kagemane no jutsu, he used the shadows to grab the man and quickly pull him back. Before the man came to senses, Shadow bopped him on the head. Looking at the hitai-ate in suspicion he gathered a small amount of chakra to his hand and murmured "Kai". The crossed-off symbol faded and Shadow gasped when he saw what appeared in its place. The sound symbol was quite distinctive, but still Shadow was surprised to see that the man was a sound ninja, _"and if this drunk is a Sound shinobi, it is likely the rest are sound as well," _He cursed, he needed to get back to Kit. Feeling no remorse as he slit the guys throat, he hid the body under the earth using a less advanced version of "Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu". He was about too move when he heard some voices talking loudly near were he was hiding. He wondered if all the missing nins were drunk tonight. Moving silently to a position where he could hear and see the nins, he eavesdropped on the conversation. A big blonde man was speaking.

"So tomorrow we go back to the village and hand over the scroll to Orochimaru-sama, correct?" One of the men drawled. His dark-headed friend nodded sharply, her childlike voice loud and strong

"Did we not just say that Renju? Orochimaru-sama wants this "bloodlines" scroll very much, we should be rewarded greatly for this. That is why Nubi got his own tent, he is keeping the scroll safe for Orochimaru-sama," her smirk was plain on her face. Shadow paled even more as listened on, he really needed to talk to Kit now.

Kit cocked his head as he heard a whistle too high for human ears, it was obviously Shadow, but why was he coming back. He tensed ever so slightly as a weight dropped down next to him on the branch, but relaxed when he felt Shadow's chakra signature.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were going, I was just about to start my attacks," he whispered harshly, "I found out something interesting about these "missing" nins," Kit frowned in confusion at Shadow's use of air quotes. Seeing his confusion Shadow filled him in on the fact that these were Sound shinobi and under the control of Orochimaru, also the fact that one of their men, a guy named Nubi was the one to steal the scroll and was the one in charge. Kit took all of this in as pieces of the puzzle slotted into place. He turned towards Shadow.

"Mizuki was a distraction correct?" at the nod he continued, "We got the report of missing nins causing trouble a day or two before. I am guessing that Mizuki was meant to be our distraction for a few days, so that we wouldn't get to the missing nin report later and then we would be searching for the missing nins after they had gone." Shadow swore and insisted that they needed to take of this problem now, as they missing Nins were leaving the next day. If he didn't know Kit as well as he did, he would have been extremely scared. Shadow was only sad when he saw the menacing grin that Kit had on his face that someone so young could look like that was frightening, he smiled sadly as the boy went and scouted the area again.

The two waited until everyone in the camp had fallen asleep before commencing. Moving quickly they slit the throats of the sleeping sentries and went on into the camp. They then split up, Kitsune would take the right side of the camp and Shadow the left. Kit went into one of the huge tents that housed the careless missing nins, there were around ten-fifteen in this tent. He decided to make a scene to show Orochimaru that Konoha was not to be messed with. He performed the hand seals needed and then,

"Doton: Yomi Numa!" The entire tent except where he was turned into a swamp and before any of the nins could do anything he set the swamp alight with 'Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu', he heard the screams of the dying nins as he jumped away. He drew a calming breath when he saw the destruction he had caused with the two attacks. After all this time, he was still regretting every death he caused in cold blood. Closing those feelings off he went to the main tent and saw Shadow waiting for him, looking to his left he saw destruction where the other tent had been and shuddered, no one would want to get on Shadow's bad side. Knowing that Shadow would not have left anyone alive he ran forward to where his partner was and looked at the tent.

The main tent where Nubi slept was the biggest one, creeping inside the two could see that the tent was filled with stolen items and right in the middle next to the sleeping thief there was a scroll. The bloodlines scroll. Shadow placed a genjutsu over the sleeping man, so that if he woke up, he would be inside his worst nightmare. While Nubi slept on the two sealed everything they could into a few sealing scrolls and grabbed the bloodlines scroll. Creeping towards where the sleeping man lay, they were shocked by what was next to him.

"What the hell?!"


	4. Getting the scroll back

**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto and unfortunately never will. :( **

**4. Getting the scroll back. **

Shadow swallowed heavily and the body that was beside Nubi. It was a young girl, who had bruises all over her and cuts and stab wounds. If she hadn't been dead already the blood loss would have killed her. The girl was half underneath Nubi and it was obvious what he had done. The girl looked about 14 and they could tell she was a civilian by her body structure.

"Let me kill the bastard, Shadow," Kit's voice was cold as he looked at the bastard, he felt a slightly shaking hand on his shoulder and looked back. Shadow was shaking and his hands were tense. They had seen horrible things, but it always shocked Shadow when it was a child that was used in such a horrific way, especially when the kids were around Kit's age. It was just disgusting and he hated having to see things like this. His lip curled as he regarded the bastard. That man would pay in the most painful way possible if he had anything to say about it.

"No Kit he is mine and I want you to go outside and make sure that there is no evidence of anyone in this area, understood?" Kit nodded sharply; he knew when Shadow's voice sounded that cold and cruel to listen to whatever he said and then do it. "I'll take the girl's body," he replied as an answer. Shadow nodded and turned his back to Kit. Kit carefully pulled the body from underneath Nubi and hauled the body over his shoulder, walking out he took one look at his partner. Not many things could scare someone with a demon sealed within them, but Shadow's face did.

He wrapped a cloth around he girl in respect and covered her face, she had been a very pretty girl in life, but her beauty was almost unrecognisable now. The Raging Kitsune carried the girl to a little meadow approximately 100 metres away from where the missing nins camp once stood. As he put her on the grass he saw a band around her wrist, slowly retracting it he looked at the blood covered band. It had the words **"Bira Hana- Hasu Orphanage" **It was an identification bracelet.

Shadow looked at the guy sleeping peacefully. _'He won't be sleeping at all by the time I am done with him.' _He thought viciously. He knew that child abusers were the worst sort of people. Shadow decided to start slow; drifting into the shadows he threw a kunai into the man's shoulder.

Nubi woke with a start, not noticing the pain at first. He was thinking of the young girl he had killed, he felt some dampness on his shoulder and put a hand to it. Another kunai was thrown from the shadows into his other shoulder.

"Fuck! What the hell was that?" A fist slammed into his face and he was thrown backwards from the force. Clutching the soft, broken cartilage that had been his nose he stared into the darkness. A light brightened the room and he could see a figure about a metre away from him and he scurried back further, not realising that he would he one of the poles.

Shadow saw the man's head hit one of the poles as the coward scurried back, away from who he deemed as the attacker. Little did Nubi know, Shadow was not his attacker. He was his killer. He stalked forward light the forgotten torches with a fire jutsu, leaving the room in a daunting fire-light. He swiftly kicked the man's legs as he tried to stand up. He heard a crunch as the guy went down and he grinned from behind his mask. Nubi tried to make seals, but his hands were shaking too much to properly form hand seals, let alone release chakra. "Wh-who are you?" his voice came out as a weak stutter, Shadow lifted an eyebrow at the quivering heap in front of him.

"I am the one who will take you to see Shigami." Sneering at the weakling of a man he raised his hands in front of him and formed the hand seals that would create a nightmare genjutsu, only second to the Uchiha's Tsukuyomi technique. Nubi screamed as the genjutsu took affect. It took five minutes for the man's ears, mouth and eyes to bleed, by the time Shadow stopped the illusion the man was near dead and his mind had been suppressed. In short, he was a vegetable. _"what a fitting end to such a horrible piece of shit," _He quickly slit the guy's throat and left the tent. Making the hand seals for Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu, he thought about that poor girl. _"I hope Kit gave her a proper burial," _

"So all of the missing nins are dead?" The two nodded, "Hand in your report tomorrow and you can go, Naruto remember you have training with your genin team tomorrow," as they left, the third slumped into his seat. He didn't like when Iruka and Naruto came back completely silent and closed off. _"Why did I let the two of them become ANBU? Oh right still low on shinobi." _Although it may seem incredulous but even nine years after the sealing of the Kyuubi no Kitsune the village of the leaf could barely keep up with demand for missions. Most of the seasoned and strong shinobi were killed or crippled during the Kyuubi attack, not to mention the Uchiha massacre. To have Naruto and Iruka strong enough to be ANBU at the time seemed like a blessing. Now however Sarutobi was second guessing himself and his previous decisions.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Hey Naruto, are you going to be okay?" Iruka leaned against the bathroom door as he watched his little 'brother' puke up everything he had eaten in the past twenty four hours. Now that they were back in Konoha they could be themselves and stop suppressing their emotions. It was a hard technique to learn, but most ANBU and special jonin knew how to do it. Naruto was a little less resistant to suppressing his emotions as teenage hormones and all that jazz came into effect.

"I'll be fine Iruka, but we should get to sleep soon. It is nearly 2am and I have 'survival training'" his shudder was quite amusing for the pseudo chunin. "And Kakashi will probably be late, you have to teach at the academy in about 6 hours." Iruka groaned,

"No I have a meeting at six am, man how annoying," the two soon went to sleep and both were dreading the next day.

(Iruka's pov)

'Beep, Beep Be-Crash!'. Iruka looked up groggily from under the covers to the alarm clock now in pieces. _"Why do I have to work, I just want to sleep!," _groaning, I got up. "I really don't want to go to work today,"

"You are aware talking to yourself is a sign of madness, right?" Naruto looked at Iruka. "Time to get up and go," and with that he left. Iruka went to have a shower to wake himself up.

Stumbling out of the bathroom with a towel round his waist he was surprised to see his chunin uniform all laid out and breakfast on a tray next to the clothing. Shrugging on his vest he turned to the breakfast, it was bacon and eggs. _"What's this," _what he hadn't seen before. It was a note. **"I'm going to the bridge where that pervert told us to meet. Eat everything and don't be late, Naruto, P.S. Don't forget to do the report."** He shook his head, typical Naruto. Naruto hated paperwork with a passion. Iruka remembered an incident with the Hokage a while back when they were handing in a report. It was a long report as the mission lasted a week and it was an S-rank mission.

_**-Flashback no jutsu- **_

"_**I hate paperwork, can't someone else do it? It is so boring and meaningless. Come on Jiji." Naruto was not happy. The third raised an eyebrow. **_

"_**If you hate paperwork how do you expect to last in a position like being the Hokage. The job is practically all paperwork, you would quit within a week." He was confused by Naruto's grin. **_

"_**Only if you don't know how to get out of it," **_

"_**How?" Not wanting to admit it but Iruka was curious as well. It was a well known fact that the third hated paperwork. It was also a fact among the older generation that the Yondaime had figured out a way to get out of doing so much work. As Naruto took a breath the third leaned forward in anticipation. **_

"_**That's my secret, you'll just have to figure it out." Naruto was just like his father, so very cheeky and disrespecting of his elders. The third and Iruka both face faulted into the floor. **_

"_**Why???? Why will you not put me out of my misery?" The blond sweat dropped at the Hokage antics. He was practically bawling. Naruto inched his way out of the room as Iruka watched the Hokage in shock. The third took his head from his hands and turned to face where Naruto was when he face faulted and starting crying big, fat, anime tears. **_

"_**Where is he? Where did that boy go?" he had only now figured that he could have ordered Naruto to tell him. Little did he know that Naruto would have denied such an order as it was just to funny to watch the Hokage go on in ignorance. Iruka took the route of his comrade and inched his way out the door, mindful of the Hokage's ranting about the evilness of paperwork. **_

_**He found Naruto on the Hokage monument and sat next to him. **_

"_**So are you ever going to tell him your secret," the boy faced him, deliberated for a few seconds and then shook his head. "Not until I become Hokage." They both burst into laughter. **_

_**-Flashback end- **_

"Oh shit!" he was startled out of his reminiscing as he looked at the clock on the wall. He had six minutes to get to the academy or he would be late for the first time since he started working there. _"No, not my perfect record!" _He hopped furiously from building to building using chakra to make him faster. _"Nearly there, nearly there" _

The meeting was just about to start when a figure jumped in from the left hand window and into a seat.

"Iruka! You were almost late, what happened?" the academy director was a curious, if impatient man. Iruka shook his head at the man seated next to him. "Woke up late, and forgot 'bout the meeting," he was slightly out of breath from the sprinting he just did. The director laughed,

"I was worried, thought maybe you were held up, hhmmm." He nudged Iruka who flushed a red only seen on tomatoes. The director also fancied himself a comedian. "Anyway down to business. The budget we were given is currently-" Iruka groaned mentally, this was gonna be a long meeting.

(Naruto's pov)

He snickered to himself as left Iruka's room. Watching Iruka up was somewhat funny for Naruto, for years Naruto was the one who was woken by Iruka, but lately Naruto has woken up earlier than Iruka and if his alarm doesn't wake him up Naruto will.

He quickly finished making breakfast and scarfed down his portion. Putting Iruka's plate on a tray and brought it to the bedroom. He could hear the shower running as he pulled Iruka's chunin uniform out of the closet and laid it perfectly on the bed next to the breakfast. He left soon after doing the dishes and pulling on a sleeveless blank top and low slung black pants. He wore bandages where his ANBU tattoo was and put a Kunai holder there. He wore the typical ninja sandals and left his hitai-ate around his neck. He wasn't going to act like an idiot in front of the people who would become his team until he made chunin(officially of course).

He arrived at the meeting place at 5 to 5 and sat down against a tree. While he was waiting for his team-mates and Hakate he meditated. Sasuke arrived first at exactly 5am, he spared a weird look to Naruto who was sitting calmly. Sasuke could tell that the dobe wasn't asleep, as his posture was too straight. Naruto cracked an eyelid when he felt a stare and gave a foxy grin at his male team-mate who turned away quickly with a light blush on his cheeks. It wasn't until 5:30am that Sakura arrived and you could fell the agitation pouring off Sasuke when the banshee came.

"Sasuke-kun! You're here, you want to get lunch with me after practice? Where is sensei and Naruto? Ooh I bet sensei had something important to do, what do you think? Where is NARUTO-BAKA! Oh well more time for me and you," the girl latched onto Sasuke and pushed her none existent breasts against his arm. Sasuke shuddered in revulsion as he felt the tissues press into him and shoved her off him. He turned to where Naruto was and his eye twitched. The dobe was silently laughing his guts out at the horrified Uchiha.

"I'm here S-s-sakura," still trying to rein in his laughter. The pinkette turned and her jaw dropped. He looked hot!

"Naruto stop trying to upstage Sasuke. I still won't go out with you. You are just an idiot and always will be." The boy she was sneering out gagged, and then when he registered her insult stood up eyes narrowed.

"You think I actually ever really liked _you_?" he walked towards where his two team mates where standing, his voice smooth and dangerous. "Why would I ever want to go out with a pink haired banshee, who has a big forehead and screeches everything. You Haruno Sakura are loud, annoying and one of the most pathetic creatures I have ever met. You are a disgrace to your gender and a disgrace to kunoichis everywhere, what the hell is with your attitude? You came 30 minutes late to your _first _day as a potential genin and then immediately latch on to your crush without noticing anything else. The only reason you want to be a ninja is because the Uchiha is a ninja and the only reason you passed your tests is because you are book-smart, but that will not get you very far. Your body is weak and your chakra reserves puny. You think that Sasuke will rescue you sorry ass whenever you are in trouble and that makes you a liability. The boy doesn't even like you and if had to father children by anyone it sure as hell wouldn't be you. He wants to be the strongest; he would want a strong wife not a weak one. Am I right teme?" The Uchiha raised an eyebrow and then nodded minutely.

"Hn," Sakura looked at her crush wide-eyed, tears welled up in her eyes at his agreement. She turned to where Naruto was in anger. The Kyuubi container just looked at her in contempt.

"This is-" A great cloud of smoke filled the area and stopped Sakura's rant. As the smoke cleared they could see it was Kakashi. Their potential sensei grinned at them.

"Sorry I'm late, you see there was this old lady who needed my help and then-" he stopped as Naruto raised his hand and eyebrow.

"You expect us to believe that? You are famous for being late and making up random excuses it is quite depressing," Kakashi stared at the weird boy who was tutting him. He shook his head.

"Anyway ready for the test?"

**R&R people. :P**

**Mahina**

**P.S. I got complaints last chapter about some spelling mishaps. the spell check I use generally has UK settings and as such some words are not spelled the same way to American. PLEASE KEEP THAT IN MIND. **


	5. Becoming a genin

**Disclaimer: I sadly do not own Naruto and never will. **

_**HI! Just wanted to say that updates may be slower as school is starting but in 8 weeks in will be back on Holidays and hopefully writing to my heart's content. :P**_

**5. Becoming Genin. **

"You are going to be tested using the bell test. I have two bells and the ones who get the bells are the ones who are going to pass, the other will be sent back into the academy," the sensei held up the two bells for the kids to see. His eye curved as if he was smiling and he said. "You have until twelve to get them. Come at me with intent to kill." Sakura gasped.

"But sensei you could get hurt!" She turned as Naruto snickered into his hand. "Naruto baka what are you laughing at?" she had seemingly already forgotten about him reprimanding her not five minutes ago. He looked at her,

"This guy is a jounin we are merely genins, what hope do we have of killing or even hurting him?" she flushed at the condescending stare. Hakate rubbed the back of his head.

"Are you just going to stand there or are you going to start?" Sakura and Sasuke disappeared from sight, unfortunately for them they had not learnt to fully disguise their charka yet and as such Kakashi knew exactly where they were. Naruto however stayed standing in front of Kakashi. "Heh what an idiot," Sasuke thought from his hiding place. Sakura mirrored his thoughts from the tree she was up.

"What are you doing Uzumaki?" Kakashi was somewhat skeptical about this boy. He reached into his pocket and saw Naruto tense up; no doubt thinking it was a weapon. Naruto fell to the ground when Kakashi revealed an icha icha paradise book. Its bright, orange cover quite distinguishable.

"What the hell? I knew he read them but to be so careless. He must not think much of us. Well I'll show him." Naruto performed the ox seal and felt some of the gravity seals he wears melt away. Kakashi looked at him, his visible full of veiled confusion.

"You ready for me sensei, I held back quite a lot in the academy and as such my profile may not be quite right." He sped through the hand seals of one of his favourite jutsus. "Kage Bushin no jutsu!" Another fifty Narutos appeared. It was a sea of blond and black in the eyes of Sakura and Sasuke from their view points. Kakashi sighed as he looked up from his book. He sighed and then got out a kunai and without even putting way his book he became a blur in the field. After a minute he was back where he started, kunai away and still reading that thrice damned book! Kakashi was slightly confused but didn't have time to question it as he felt a spark of charka from behind. He turned around quickly enough to dodge the flurry of kunai that were launched at him and catch the kick that the Uchiha heir attempted. His eye curved in what could be considered a smile for someone who wore a mask over his face.

"Maa-maa Sasuke, quite fast aren't you?" the boy growled and back flipped further away from his sensei. "But I wonder if you are better than your team mates, hmmm?" the boy's face was a mixture of disgust and outrage. "Uzumaki is a dead last and Haruno a weak fan girl, they will only hold me back." Sasuke then sped through the hand seals of his favourite jutsu. Kakashi's eyes widened as he realised just what technique the Uchiha was about to unleash, "Impossible a normal genin shouldn't have that much charka!" Sasuke just smirked at his sensei. "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" A fairly big fireball flew out of Sasuke's mouth, Kakashi jumped up and stared down lazily at his potential student.

"Be careful with that, you wouldn't want to hurt yourself," He taunted. Sasuke's face twisted into rage. He attacked Kakashi with everything he had and it still wasn't enough. The man lazily blocked everything and then disappeared from sight. "Where can he be? Not in front or behind. Above, no," he twisted around and couldn't find the jounin. There was one place he didn't look, below. Hands shot out of the earth and grabbed Sasuke by the legs and pulled him down into the earth. Soon enough only his head and the top of his shoulders were visible. Kakashi came out of the earth and grinned at the wannabe shinobi.

"Nice try, but still not enough to get the bells, let's see how the others are doing, I trust that you are comfortable." and with that Kakashi jumped away. "Let's see how Sakura's doing?" He found Sakura hiding in a tree not far from where Sasuke was buried. "I wonder how she will go with genjutsu?" Kakashi left one for her to find and then went off to look for his wayward student. He heard a scream soon after and knew the genjutsu worked when a thump followed the scream. "Was I a bit too harsh?" Kakashi thought for a moment as he regarded the genjutsu, he had made an illusion where Sakura thought that Sasuke had been stumbling towards her, fatally injured. "Nah, now where is Naruto?"

Naruto had been watching the whole time and was silently laughing his guts out. He was laughing so hard that he didn't notice his charka control had slipped a bit. Kakashi sure did, his head flew up as if he was a dog when he sensed that charka. Naruto, if he had seen the grin on Kakashi's face would've been scared, ANBU or not. People generally forget that Kakashi used to be an ANBU when faced with the eccentric man.

However Naruto was an ANBU and knew when someone was trying to sneak up on him. He jumped down from the tree as he felt Kakashi's charka signal go up. Running into the field where it had all started he turned to face his sensei. Giving a foxy grin he performed the Kage Bushin jutsu, Kakashi was surprised; Naruto's reputation as a prankster proceeded him and one aspect about his reputation stuck out. He never performed the same prank twice. He lowered the book warily and jumped back when Naruto performed another technique. "Now Ero-sensei let's see if you are straight or not." It was disputed throughout the village whether the famous copy ninja was gay, after all he had never shown an interest in woman before. At least not publicly, Naruto was going to find out the truth. He was still a child; no matter the position he was given.

"Oiroke no Jutsu! Hārem no Jutsu!" Kakashi's eyes bugged out as he saw the naked clones, but unlike the Hokage he didn't get a nosebleed, Naruto grinned he wasn't done yet. He transformed all the women into naked men, based off Iruka actually, there were clouds covering his privates just like with the female variation. This time Kakashi's nose was visibly bleeding. The Kyuubi child burst out into laughter as his sensei went speechless when the clones dog piled him. Soon enough the sensei was unconscious from blood loss and one of the clones gave Naruto the bells. He dispersed them and sat waiting for his team mates. It took him a couple of minutes to remember that Sakura had fainted and Sasuke was buried up to his shoulders. Growling he went to where Sakura was. He saw the girl lying on the ground face down; he sighed and slung the girl over his shoulder. He dumped her in the field near the posts before going to get Sasuke. The boy was getting angrier and angrier the longer he was stuck into the ground. Naruto almost laughed when he saw the Uchiha's face red from fury and the sun.

"Get me out of here dobe." Naruto stood back, this brat had the audacity to order him about when he was the one who could get him out. He shrugged at the boy.

"Why should I Uchiha, frankly this is funny as hell to see the arrogant Uchiha up to his neck in the ground. Being rude won't help your cause you know," Sasuke's face went even redder when Naruto reprimanded him,

"Please could you help me," he gritted out unhappily, Naruto grinned brightly.

"That wasn't so hard, now was it Sasuke?" he said cheerily before helping dig the kid out. "You at least say thank you!" he shouted at Sasuke's back, the boy turned towards him,

"Hn," before walking away stiffly. Naruto just shook his head and then walked into the direction of Kakashi. After Kakashi and Sakura had woken Kakashi started talking.

"Well I have one thing to say, none of you should go back to the academy," Naruto looked on in confusion as Sakura squealed and Sasuke smirked, however their hopes were dashed by what Kakashi had to say. "You should quit being a ninja," Sasuke had small frown on his face and Sakura started bawling. Naruto face faulted onto the ground. Kakashi frowned, "This test was about team work, You Naruto decided to try and take me on by yourself, Sasuke the same. How is that team work? Sasuke, you even said that the other two would hold you back. How would you know that? Naruto you didn't even consider the other two in this team before branching out on your own." the two kids looked shamefaced as Kakashi turned to Sakura, "Sakura, you didn't try at all, all you did was wait for something to happen, you didn't ask for help nor did you attempt to help either Sasuke or Naruto." he took a breath, "And because of that you fail and as none of you got the bells all of you get to be tied up," Naruto growled,

"Actually Sensei did you even check that the bells were still with you? Wait a minute here they are." he held up the dangling bells and smirked at the dumfounded looks on everyones face. "When my clones made you pass out I got one to get me the bells," The sensei raised an eyebrow at the blond Kyuubi container.

"Well then it seems only you and I will eat today, now you can hand over the bells, Naruto." as he had hand out Naruto shook his head,

"'Fraid not sensei, here Sasuke, Sakura catch." the two fumbled with the bells and then looked at Naruto in shock. "No Naruto this is yours," Sakura said in a rare, almost unheard of moment of compassion, she held the bell out for Naruto to take and was surprised to see Sasuke handing the other bell back. Before Naruto could refuse Kakashi snatched them up and then grinned at his new students.

"Now that's what I was talking about. Team work, caring about comrades. You pass, see you tomorrow at the bridge at 5am, Sayonara," and with one of his famous eye smiles, Kakashi disappeared in cloud of smoke. His students looked at the space that was just occupied in shock, as the words registered in their minds they all showed happiness on their faces. Sasuke left to go train and Sakura went to go tell her parents. Naruto went to the Hokage, Iruka was currently teaching at the academy.

"...So jiji, that is how we passed the test to become genin," Naruto shuddered at the last word, he was ANBU for god's sakes, he did not want to become a genin. Sarutobi nodded,

"But why didn't you approach Sasuke and Sakura to begin with, that would have saved you lot of hassle," he was surprised to see a faint pink blush climbing up Naruto's neck. Naruto rubbed the back of his neck and shrugged,

"Would you believe me if I say I forgot?" The third raised an eyebrow and looked over Naruto. The boy actually looked and had been acting his age today, he smiled he was happy to see Naruto having, after all the boy was just that, a boy. He smirked suddenly and leaned forward,

"So Naruto what was this about a male variation of your Sexy jutsu? Didn't you base it off Iruka?" the boy actually blushed fully that time and stuttered.

"Ah well, umm. Kakashi didn't react to the female version of my Oiroke no jutsu and Iruka was the first male that popped into my head and so-" he felt killing intent from behind and spun around quickly. "I-Ir-Iruka! I thought you were teaching!" The enraged man shook his head.

"I finished early. Now Naruto what was that about a male version of the Sexy no jutsu based off me?" the killing intent got stronger as Iruka walked closer to Naruto, who backing away from the furious man. Sarutobi was cackling madly in his head. He had felt Iruka's charka signature, but it was obvious Naruto had let down his guard. Naruto smiled nervously,

"I should probably start running right now," and with that he was gone running full speed out the door and through the Hokage tower. Iruka blinked before it sunk in and then he was chasing Naruto through Konoha. The third chuckled before going back to the mountain of paperwork that was stacked up on his desk. Just after he started he heard a shout. It was Iruka and he was yelling after Naruto. "Iruka can yell quite loudly," the third mused, and went back to the evilness of paperwork. Meanwhile Iruka was chasing the brat and screaming at the top of his lungs.

"Uzumaki Naruto! Get your ass back here NOW!"


	6. te life and times of an ANBUGenin

**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto and am getting pretty sick of having to do this every damn chapter. **

**6. The life and times of an ANBU/Genin **

"_Damn it! Where can I hide?" Crap, he's going to catch me!" _Naruto stopped when he saw the old Uchiha compound. _"Let's see if Sasuke will hide his team mate, from a murderous, raging chunin," _He bolted to the main house in the compound and pounded on the door, it took a while but finally the door opened to reveal...

Uchiha Sasuke just out of the shower. Naruto blushed as he realized that Sasuke was just in a towel, but then he heard Iruka screaming for him and paled.

"Sasuke can I please, please, please hide here?" he had on the cutest face he could manage, but the Uchiha was unmoved, he raised an eyebrow.

"No." Naruto dropped to his knees and begged his team mate. Sasuke was wondering why Naruto was at his doorstep begging to be hidden. He then also herd Iruka sensei's voice and figured it out. _"Iruka must have found out about the dobe's jutsu, everyone knows he hates perverts." _everyone in Konoha that was in the academy when Iruka was teaching also knew to run for cover when he got that mad. He sighed mentally and opened his door wide enough for Naruto to slip in. The blond raced in, Sasuke lead him into the living room and faced the panting teen.

"You will stay here and not touch anything." he said shortly before going to get some clothes on. Naruto sat on one of the couches and caught his breath. _"Man, Ruka's going to kill me. I'm glad Sasuke let me in to hide, but why did he have to be in towel?" _it was a little known fact that Naruto, was bisexual. A lot of people would say he is too young to know or it's just teenage hormones, but Naruto had grown up fast and knew that was attracted to both genders. He didn't advertise this fact for obvious reasons he was hated already for being the Kyuubi container, how would those stuffed up, traditional old people take it if he were attracted to guys. He never understood why some were so against homosexual relationships, if they wanted a kid why not get a surrogate? Anyway love was love no matter what form it was in. He was jolted out of his thoughts by the sound of Sasuke's footsteps and looked up.

Sasuke stood there looking at his team mate on the couch and observed him for the first time. Uzumaki was fairly short at 5ft 3 and slender. He had bright yellow hair and big blue eyes. _"He's not that bad at all, wait what am I saying this is the Dobe!" _the Uchiha slapped himself mentally as he made himself known to Naruto. He gulped mentally when the blue eyes were directed at him and then growled, _'Stupid Teenage hormones,"_

"Come on dobe, we are going to spar," he spun around and led Naruto outside. Naruto followed quietly as he took in the splendor of the main house, Sasuke was giving him an unintentional tour of his house. The place was very clean although it looked like only a few rooms were in use. Straight outside was a training site. It was fairly big and there were posts near the southern edge of the field. He faced Sasuke and slid into a fighting position. It was in unspoken agreement that it was a pure taijustu spar.

They stared at each other for a moment, assessing before Naruto lunged.

_(2 hours later)_**(Sorry but I can't do fight scenes) **

Naruto flopped down on the grass in exhaustion. Sasuke was a tough opponent for a genin, but Naruto was ANBU keeping his strength in check was tiring enough as it was. He looked over at his tired opponent and smiled, Sasuke looked exhausted, barely standing with hands on his knees trying to catch his breath. Sasuke was very tired and could see that Naruto was as well. They both eventually managed to get inside and then they came to the problem of getting cleaned up.

"Go dobe," Naruto shook his head,

"No it is your home and you should go first," this sort of argument could go on for ages and the Uchiha knew it so he pushed Naruto into the shower and grabbed some spare clothes for the blond, they were around the same size and Sasuke had no problems getting something that would fit the Uzumaki. After Naruto had stumbled out of the Sasuke got and was in there for at least twenty minutes. This gave Naruto ample time to make him dinner in thanks for saving him from Iruka. _"Hopefully Iruka would have calmed down by the time he finds me," _He heard the shower turn off just as he turned the stove off, he had made a simple stir fry with rice.

Sasuke hauled himself down the stairs, drawn to the delicious smell emanating from the kitchen, he was surprised to see Naruto finishing off dinner and serving it on the table. His shock was clear on his and Naruto smirked softly.

"What you didn't think that all I ate was Ramen did you? Iruka would have my head if that was true." Sasuke thought about it and nodded, Iruka's concern for the blond was known throughout the village and everyone heard the yelling when they were younger and Iruka was trying to get Naruto to eat more than just ramen. He sat down at the table and tried the meal that Naruto had made. He took one bite and was very surprised, it was actually quite good, Sasuke assumed that Iruka had taught Naruto how to cook, so that he didn't just have take out. The two teens ate in silence, however it wasn't an awkward silence like most might think but the sort of silence where you don't need words.

After dinner, they both did the dishes and then ended up in the living room. Naruto started when he realized that they had been conversing without a fight breaking once, the spar didn't count. When Sasuke shot him a questioning glance Naruto explained. Sasuke was just as stunned when he realized he had been friendly to the _dobe _for the past couple of hours. His mask of standoffishness had fallen sometime during the spar with Naruto. Naruto smiled nervously,

"Perhaps I should leave now, it will be getting late soon." He didn't want Sasuke to go back to his usually rude self. Sasuke nodded quickly.

"Hn," Sasuke's face went through a range of emotions and Naruto was almost out the door when Sasuke said something. Naruto turned around,

"What was that Sasuke?" The dark haired boy looked down and mumbled just loud enough for Naruto to hear.

"You can stay here," The young ANBU's eyes bugged out of their sockets. Uchiha Sasuke was asking him to stay the night? _"What in the world has gotten into him? Oh well I'll stay, just to make sure that Iruka doesn't get me. Who knows maybe Sasuke is more then a broody bastard." _He nodded quickly, before Sasuke had a chance to change his mind.

_(Sasuke's pov) _

"_Shit why did I do that?" _he was surprised at himself for offering. Usually he made himself seem unapproachable and usually he liked it that way. Naruto seemed to be able to open him up. _"What the hell is he doing to me!" _Since he was little boy, he had always been standoffish, even before the massacre. In the Uchiha family, particularly as he was of the main branch showing emotion was frowned on as it was seen as being weak. After the massacre he knew he had to be strong otherwise people would take advantage of him. The fan girls didn't help him come out of his shell either.

The two boys stared at each other in an awkward silence for a few seconds before Naruto coughed, and said thanks. That snapped Sasuke out of his thoughts and he took Naruto to one of his spare rooms and left him there.

"Hey, Sasuke." The dark haired boy turned to his team-mate. "Thanks, for this. Hopefully Iruka will have calmed down by tomorrow, eh?" Sasuke lips twitched as he turned and left the room. Naruto dropped down on the bed and just about melted. The bed was so comfy, at least compared to his own at home. _"Sasuke has it made" _he looked around and realised just how big the Uchiha mansion really was. You could easily get lost in a place this size, and Sasuke lived here all by himself. _"He must be very lonely here," _Oh don't be mistaken, Naruto still thought that Sasuke was an unemotional jackass, but now he could see another side to the previously distant teen. _"He's wearing a mask just like me!" _it was a startling revelation and he knew he wouldn't be able to look at Sasuke the same way now that he knew the behaviour he displayed was like the behaviour Naruto displayed when he was pretending to be an idiot. Naruto didn't get much sleep that night and he wasn't the only one.

_(Iruka's pov) _

"Uzumaki Naruto! Get your ass back here NOW!" Iruka was chasing that blasted boy all over Konoha and he was having no luck in finding him either. _"Where did he go?" _Naruto knew he used to have a crush on the Copy ninja, but come on, that was years ago. When Iruka was just exploring his sexuality, the little crush he had on Hakate Kakashi faded pretty quick when he observed the man and his porn reading habits. Now all he felt for the man was irritation and annoyance. The reason for that was-

"Yo," The one eyed man popped out of no where and landed in front of Iruka who jumped in shock, he had let his guard down and was clutching his chest as he glared at the man. _"Damn I'm getting soft and complacent" _

"Don't do that Hakate!" He straightened his clothes, and used his teacher's voice on the man. "What do you want?" The man grinned rakishly under his mask.

"Well Iruka sensei, there is this new restaurant and I was wondering if-"

"No," Iruka held up a hand to stop him, "Kakashi I've told you, that I will not go out with you, why do you keep asking?" he said tiredly, this was the cause of his irritation and annoyance with the famous ninja. He wouldn't stop asking Iruka out for dates and Iruka was sick of it. The man just wouldn't give up it was very frustrating,

"I thought we might be able to discuss Naruto," Damn, the man had hit his weak spot and Iruka knew he would cave this time, because everyone knew of his closeness with Naruto. It looks like the cyclops knew he had won this round because Iruka could see his eye curve like when one was smiling.

"Fine," the dolphin snapped, "But after I catch Naruto," he smirked inwardly, for the first time in his life he was glad Naruto was good at hiding. Kakashi tutted at the man,

"Maa-Maa you can find him later, now let's go!" he grabbed Iruka's wrist and pulled him along, he was like a child. Iruka groaned, he couldn't get out of this unless he used his true strength and that would blow his cover. After all, one chunin cannot defeat the great Hakate Kakashi. _"Gag me, this is going to be painful," _

**___________________________-----____---------- **

**Be warned it is probably not going to be SasuNaru or KakaIru. So please don't review me and complain, it does get quite annoying. **

**Anyway, enjoy the chapter and R&R **

**Ciao **

**Mahina**


	7. Iruka's 'date' and Naruto is found

**Disclaimer- Do not own Naruto and this is the last time I will put a disclaimer up on this story and it is a pain in the ass to do so. **

**7. Iruka's 'date' and Naruto is found. **

Iruka's eye twitched as the waitress flirted with Kakashi, he wanted to get this shit over and done so he could find Naruto and beat the crap out of his little 'brother'. Kakashi knew he was pissing Iruka off and yet he didn't seem to care. Eventually the waitress led them to a table and walked away with her hips swaying, in an obvious attempt to be seductive. Iruka snorted into his hand,

"Man, what a slut," he hated it when people offered themselves like that, because of a reputation and good looks. Kakashi looked over in surprise,

"Language Iruka sensei," Iruka just looked at his kidnapper and gave a half hearted glare, all he wanted to do was find Naruto, why does it have to be such a hassle? He was so into his thoughts he didn't notice when the waitress came in with some water.

_(Waitress' pov) _

"_Why is that mousey guy getting all that ninja's attention? It should be me I'm better looking then that brunette," _the girl fluffed her blonde hair nervously, if she played her cards right she should be able to se what was under those clothes and that mask. She glared when she noticed that the silver haired hunk was staring at his companion's face, the brunette was staring into space obviously lost in his thoughts. _"I'll rain on his parade," _and she pretended to trip spilling the water 'accidentally' in the way of Iruka, unfortunately or fortunately Iruka wasn't completely in the clouds and managed to dodge most of the ice cold water but some did get on his chunin vest and his upper body.  
_(Normal pov) _

"Shit, shit, Shit!" the other customers looked at the cursing chunin in amusement. It was a very funny site although Iruka didn't seem to think so. He got a few pitying glances, including a very fake one from the blond waitress,

"Oh Sir are you alright?" came a high-pitched voice, Iruka glared at the girl,

"Perfectly lovely, now could you get some towels perhaps?" he snapped, she flushed as the silver haired man turned to look at her in contempt.

"Yes, and before we leave, oh and try not to _trip _next time," he drawled, he wanted to take Iruka on a date and this foolish girl just ruined it. In his mind at least. In Iruka's mind it was ruined the moment Kakashi popped up. Iruka took off his vest and patted himself dry with the towels, the embarrassed manager had given him. He waved off the profuse apologies from the man as he was attempting to dry his vest when a hand came up and helped him, assuming it was Kakashi he turned around with a scowl on his face but it changed to surprise when he saw it was one of the shinobi that came into the mission room quite often.

"You okay there Iruka-sensei?" said the nin. Iruka blushed when he realised the man was looking him up and down.

"Yes and thank you-"

"Iruka!" Kakashi had turned around from berating the staff and saw Iruka talking with another man, he decided to end that little chat. He quickly dragged Iruka out of the resturant and would have continued dragging him places if Iruka hadn't decided enough was enough. He dug his heels into the earth and pulled with enough force to stop Kakashi. The one eyed man looked at him in confusion as Iruka glared,

"Look here Hakate, I am sick and tired of being dragged around so it will stop. I am going to find Naruto and you will leve me alone, do you understand?" he was just about shouting by the end of his rant and then without giving the shocked jounin a chance to talk; he spun around and ran in the opposite direction.

"My god, why want he leave me alone?" the chunin muttered as he resumed searching for Naruto, _"I can't believe how late it has gotten, I think I'll search more tomorrow morning," _he thought when the moon was high in the sky.

_(Next Morning) _

"Ahhhh," Naruto moaned as he stretched his arms above his head. He didn't sleep very well and was still tired. He smelled food down in the kitchen and made his way down. Sasuke was making breakfast and nodded towards the blond as he placed the food on the table. The two ate in silence and afterwards Naruto helped him clean up. Not long after Naruto was dressed and ready to go. They stood in awkward silence as both tried to come up with something to say to the other.

"Hey-"

"Thanks-" the two stopped talking and Naruto sighed, "Wow, we are eloquent this morning," Sasuke just hnned and Naruto went on, "I just want to say thank you for letting me stay the night, that was really good of you." Sasuke hnned again and Naruto twitched, "But I still think you are a cold-hearted bastard," this time Sasuke twitched as Naruto grinned at him, he pushed Naruto out the door,

"Out dobe," Naruto just shook his head and was about to leave when they both felt a familiar chakra signal, Naruto paled out Sasuke grinned mentally, this was going to be funny. The Uzumaki got ready to run when Iruka popped up next to him, grinning. Naruto never felt so scared than when he saw that face,

Oh Naruto, I've been looking for youuuuuuuuuuuu," Sasuke was shocked when Naruto bolted; but Iruka-sensei didn't seem very surprised as he ran on after the jinchuriki.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Naruto swore as he ran from his menacing brother. He was in so much trouble now that Iruka knew where he was and Naruto could sense him gaining. _"Need more speed," _he didn't dare go all out as they were still in the village and it would not go down to well.

"Ommph," he grunted as a body slammed into his and toppled him off the tree he was on. He landed hard on the ground and wasn't particularly surprised to feel Iruka's chakra coming from behind him. He flipped himself over and jumped into a crouch. Iruka slowly walked towards Naruto, _"Finally got him, he will learn not to use me in his justsu again," _he was very pleased to have caught his 'prey' and planned on making him regret what he did.

"Oh Naruto, I heard about you using me in a certain technique, you know the one I told you to stop using?" his overly sweet tone wouldn't fool anybody, he had thought about the night before and decided on a suitable punishment for his adopted little brother. The Uzumaki got down on his knees as if in prayer,

"Please, please, please forgive me. You were the only person I could think of at that moment, if I promise it won't happen again will you forgive me?" his brought out the big guns when he saw that Iruka wasn't budging.

Iruka just about caved when he saw Naruto big, blue puppy dog eyes. He swallowed, but he stayed with his decision,

"I forgive you, but," Naruto's face went from hopeful to wary in moments and Iruka had to stop himself from laughing, "You will teach my academy students how to throw kunais and shurikuns," when he saw Naruto's face he couldn't help it, he started laughing and only laughed harder when Naruto paled further as what Iruka said fully sunk in.

"But, but is there anything else I can do for you? Anything at all? Just don't make me teach those brats!" he dreaded helping those little monsters learn to throw. Most of the jounins and chunins feared the academy kids and generally did anything to get out of missions that involved them, like subbing for the normal teachers, probably because they remember what they were like and knew what happened to substitutes. Kids had no mercy.

Iruka shook his head and grinned, he like all the other teachers knew how feared their job was. It took a special type of shinobi to teach future generations and not go mad. He was going to enjoy Naruto's torture.

**Hey guys, sorry for the late update real life insists on barging in and dragging me kicking and screaming back into reality. **

**Updates will be slower as I am being bombarded with work and everything, I wish it wasn't so but unfortuately it is. Hope you enjoy this chappie. **

**Ciao**

**Mahina **


	8. First day and then the terrors

**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto and never will. **

**Hey guys, sorry about how late this chapter was in getting out. Had exams and tests and assignments and all that horrible stuff to do, finished it all though and am currently out of school for the year so updates maybe faster. However I say maybe because my computer got sold and I have to use my mum's which I have to share with my sister. **** Anyway lovelings enjoy this chappie. **

**8. First day and then the terrors**

Naruto yawned as he got up, today was the day they started training. He was kind of excited but had no doubts that Hakate would focus on the Uchiha and read his porn book, _"__I'm going to burn that book and all the others one day," _

"Oh Naruto! Are you awake?" the afore mentioned boy paled when he realised what day was today, after training with team 7, he was going to help Iruka teach the little kids. "Naruto, don't make me ask again," Iruka was very cheerful today, probably because he had help with his class today. The boy gulped and walked out of his room and was faced with a menacingly cheerful Ruka. His eye twitched as got ready to leave; Iruka's humming was getting on his nerves.

When he arrived at the meeting spot he saw that both of his teammates were already there. Checking the time he saw he was ten minutes early, _"__Why are they here early?" _he wondered as he dropped onto the grass, he knew that Hakate would be late, he was famous for that and the only reason Naruto was early was to get away from Iruka. He looked over at his two team mates, Sakura was staring at the Uchiha adoringly and despite his aloofness, the blond could see that Sasuke was uncomfortable. The three sat/stood there in silence until Kakashi showed up 2 hours later.

"YOU'RE LATE!" the pinknette screamed at the tardy man. He just grinned under his mask and replied.

"Well you see, there was this dolphin in need-"

"Haven't stopped trying to get into Ruka's pants have you, _sensei," _Naruto had a mischievous smirk on his face as Kakashi glared at him, it didn't stop him though, "I mean you are so obvious and it is funny when Ruka comes home steaming mad because of you. Didn't you know he hates perverts, so I guess you are never going to have a chance." he shrugged as he felt a glare from Kakashi. The one-eyed Nin was grumbling in his head about troublesome brats who don't know anything, he was knocked out of his thoughts by Sakura asking a question.

"What did you mean by "When Ruka come _Home_" Naruto?" Kakashi and Sasuke both turned to hear the answer, Naruto shrugged.

"We stay over at each other's places very often, I consider both my place and Iruka's home, he's the same." he didn't see what the problem was, they were very close after all.

_(Sakura's pov) _

"_What the Hell? Why would they stay over the other's house unless..." _

"_**Cha! They are together, how wonderful Yaoi is. We need to record some," **__Inner Sakura nodded as she said this,_ Sakura mentally blushed at her Inner's thoughts. Although if she had to admit the two were very close and that was obvious even in the academy. _"__Hmm, gossip alert, must tell Ino,"_

_(Kakashi's pov) _

"_Why, why?" _he sobbed mentally, _"__Why did he choose that little brat over me? I'm older, stronger, smarter and better looking!" _

(Normal)

The Uzumaki cocked his head in question at his female teammate and sensei that were submerged in their own minds. He shared a look with the avenger who smirked at Naruto's cluelessness. Didn't he think that his and Iruka's brotherly relationship could be taken another way? Five minutes passed and still the two were in their own little worlds, Sasuke had settled at glaring at them and Naruto was getting more and more frustrated. Sakura and Inner Sakura were fighting over the pros and cons of Yaoi, while Kakashi was bemoaning Iruka's 'choice'.

"Hello? Anyone home," Naruto drawled standing right in front of the vacant two. "Can I ask why you two were so distracted?" Sakura blushed heavily and got even redder when Sasuke turned his glare on her. Kakashi however looked thoughtful as he regarded the blond 'genin'.

"Why would Iruka choose you over me?" All three of his students looked stunned at the question Kakashi blurted out. Naruto was confused,

"What do you mean?"

"Why would Iruka choose a relationship with you, and not me?" Naruto spluttered as the question sunk in, Kakashi thought that he and Iruka were, were...

"What the hell? Iruka and I aren't like that! We're friends, god get your sick mind out of the gutter," Naruto's voice cracked as he spoke. The jounin grinned happily under his mask and then completely changed the subject.

"Well then, now that the matter is settled. Let's go get some D-rank missions!" he led his team to the Hokage tower where they were given a bunch of menial jobs to do for the day.

"This is just stupid, civilians can do these and how are they meant to help with team work?" Naruto whispered to his pink haired team mate, she just grunted in agreement before lunging at the cat they had to capture. This was their last mission for the day and the most annoying. _"__Why won't that stupid cat just DIE!" _he hated cats normally, but this cat was legendary. It belonged to the Daimyo's wife and Naruto had heard those that were shinobi's even before he was born complaining of the D-rank mission to catch Tora. _"__Tiger is right, bloody vicious thing." _he grinned in glee when he saw the woman almost strangling her cat in between her double chins.

"Die, die, die," he whispered maliciously, already feeling the Kyuubi healing the scratches that devil cat made. Both Sasuke and Sakura were also covered in cuts and bruises from chasing that damn cat. He felt Kakashi put a hand on his head to calm him down. After the Hokage had dismissed them, Kakashi took them the bridge.

"Now this is where we will be meeting from now on, be here at 6am tomorrow. Ja ne," with a jaunty wave, he disappeared in a cloud of smoke and the three pre-teens were left grumbling. That is until Naruto checked the time.

"SHIT! I'm gonna be late, Iruka will kill me!" he ran as fast as he could in the direction of the academy leaving his two team mates in the dust. He arrived at the school and slid into Iruka's window silently. No-one besides the teacher knew he was there and smiled a secret smile, one of the students noticed their teacher's lack of attention.

"Hey, Iruka-sensei why aren't you listening to Udon?" Moegi frowned, Udon looked up from his sheet on the history of the Shodaime and also stared at his teacher.

Iruka grinned at his class,

"Well, you remember how I told you that someone would be coming to help you learn how to throw kunai?" at the class' nod he continued, "Well that person just arrived. Say hello to Naruto," he gestured towards the blond who was hiding in the corner, he reluctantly got up and dragged himself to the front of the class. Naruto waved half-heartedly to the excited children (coughmonsterscough).

"Boss!" three of the little students lunged at their 'helper' for the day. Naruto grinned as he caught them. Moegi, Udon and Konohamaru. Konohamaru was the third's grandson and Naruto had met him years ago and through him Naruto had met the other two and had taught them little tricks. Now they called him their 'Boss'. His quickly hugged them and sent them back to their seats. Iruka continued talking,

"Now after you pack up come to the academy training grounds. Naruto will then take over your training for the day." he turned to grin at Naruto, who paled as he saw the gleeful face. Iruka moved to a safe spot, where he couldn't be hit but he could still see what was going on. Naruto led the kids to the front of the training grounds were they could see that a few targets had been set up.

"Now class, form an even line behind each target." here is where the problems began, the boys all went behind the first target and fought over who was first.

"I was here and so I-"

"Shut up Sato, I'm the best so-"

"Hey, who says you're the best?"

"Me, and I'll kick your ass if you-" Naruto's eye twitched as this went on for a while, however he knew he had to step in when a pale, green-haired boy pulled out one of his shuriken and aimed for another boy.

"Okay, okay boys calm down," he quickly stopped the impending fight and grabbed the weapons away from the two. He turned to face all the girls in the other whom were gossiping and in the third line was only three people, Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon. Naruto felt a small surge of pride that they didn't conform with the rest of their silly class. It took another ten minutes for Naruto to manage to get the kids in some sort of order and even then his hold on them was shaky. He handed out the practice kunai and handed three out to each kid. The practice kunai were made of a softer material and were blunted so it would break bones if it hit someone. The kunai were only deadly in the hands of trained shinobi and so Naruto thought that the kids wouldn't be able to do anything too dangerous with them.

"STOP!" he yelled after five minutes of watching the brats try and throw their kunai properly. They were absolutely pathetic, he turned and went over to where Iruka was sitting and crouched down next to the man.

"Have they had any practice with weapons at all?" at the other man's cheerful shake of the head he groaned in despair.

"Now, now, calm down they aren't that bad. However that was the reason I put you with them, it is your punishment after all." He patted the blond on the back in a soothing manner and then pushed him back to where the kids were waiting. Naruto tried to put on a happy face but could tell it wasn't working, he decided to start with the basics and teach how to hold their weapons properly.

(_Two hours later) _

Naruto groaned as the last child left the academy for the day and slumped onto one of the desks. Iruka looked up from his marking and smiled at his friend.

"Tiring wasn't it?" Naruto grunted and put a hand through his multi-coloured hair. After trying to get the kids to throw weapons they decided to prank their substitute numerous times and make his life as miserable as possible. As Naruto couldn't harm them he now had pink and green hair, his clothes were now purple and he was very close to killing many of the children. It only stopped when Konohamaru saw Naruto was about to snap and the little kids stopped all attacks and even intercepted a few. Naruto was extremely grateful to the little guy and planned to take him out for Ramen sometime soon. He now knew why most shinobi were terrified of having to substitute for the academy teachers or getting missions that had something to do with the academy.

"Never again," he managed to say. He would definitely use someone else for his jutsus next time. Iruka lifted the tired boys up bridal style and managed to teleport them both to his apartment, narrowly missing the one eyed jounin who had come to snag the dolphin. Iruka put Naruto on his bed to rest and then went to make them both something to eat.

Naruto groaned and rubbed his eyes; he cocked his head to the side when he heard footsteps coming towards the room he was in. Iruka's bedroom he noticed vaguely. He concentrated more on the yummy smell coming from the dish that he was holding. Iruka helped him to sit up and then placed the tray on his lap.

"I made chicken teriyaki for you, you are not getting Ramen if I have anything to say about it." He stopped all protests and then shoved some of the food into Naruto's mouth to shut him up before leaving the room. After he had eaten Naruto and Iruka watched a couple of movies before calling it a night.

**Hey babes, thanx for reading R&R people. **


	9. The chunin exams part 1

**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto and never will. :'(**

**9. The Chunin Exams part 1**

_(Time skip- one month) _

"Yo," Naruto jumped as Kakashi popped up next to him.

"You're Late!" Sakura screeched after looking up from staring at Sasuke. Kakashi's went into a U shape as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Well you see the Hokage wanted me-"

"Liar! Wait that actually sounds logical?" she stared suspiciously up at her sensei, he lifted his hands in a defensive position,

"It's true, but if you don't won't to go into the chunin exams that's fine with me," he waved the registration forms around and wasn't surprised to see all three gone in a matter of moments. All three of the kids had different thought when reading their forms.

_(Sakura's pov) _

"_Cha! This is my chance to prove to Sasuke-kun that I am worthy of him. He will finally ask me out and then we will have as many kids as he wants"_ She nodded to herself as inner Sakura grumbled over the loss of Yaoi.

_(Sasuke's Pov) _

"_Finally, these idiots have held me back long enough; I need to get stronger so that I can defeat my brother." _He glared at his form is if he were trying to set it alight with his eyes. He was so entranced that he didn't notice his blond team mate staring at him as if to say 'What the Fuck?"

_(Naruto's pov) _

While the others were thinking of how this could help them get their goals, Naruto however was doing a major happy dance in his head. _"I can finally leave, I can finally leave. No more genin!" _he was very excited, as this was a chance to get away and go back to his original position as an ANBU without having to stay as a genin. As soon as his team completed the chunin exams he was free to leave and couldn't wait to do so. _"This past month has been so boring, the only interesting mission was the wave mission and even then I couldn't show my real skills." _The wave mission was team 7's biggest accomplishments, a bridge builder named Tazuna had hired their team to escort him back to the wave and stay there until he finished the bridge. It was originally a C-rank but after a pair of missing Nins known as the Demon brothers attacked them the mission changed to an A rank. Gato who was a crime lord that had decimated the wave until they were destitute. Team 7 had stayed on and helped the bridge builder complete the bridge with only a few problems. One was Zabuza an A rank missing Nin hired by Gato to kill Tazuna. He and his accomplice (a boy by the name of Haku) would have succeeded if not for the Konoha Nins, who managed to strike a deal with them. Now the two Nins had left the wave alone and were going their own way after killing Gato themselves and taking half of the crim's liquid assets leaving the rest for the people of the wave.

"Anyway Kiddies the new icha icha paradise book is out today so Sayonara." Kakashi broke him out of his thoughts and poofed away in a cloud of smoke. The three looked at each for a moment before each going their separate ways.

* * *

"You are going to get it kid," Naruto frowned as he heard the threat, he quickly walked to the voice came from and heard the reply.

"Am not my big brother will beat you," he sighed it was Konohamaru, and he had been lifted up by his collar.

"Hey let him down, that's the Hokage's grandson." Naruto said angrily, there was a girl behind the bully and Naruto recognised her Sand symbol, _"They're here for the exams!"_ the guy who was threatening Konohamaru turned to face the blond. Naruto almost burst out laughing, the guy looked ridiculous! He looked liked a three year had painted him with his mother's make up. Biting down laughter, he listened to what the makeup boy and the girl behind him was saying,

"You aren't going to use Karasu are you, you know that-"

"Shut up Temari," the boy dropped Konohamaru and pulled something off his back but before he could use it a voice came from the trees.

"Kankuro, Temari, what did I say about fighting. You two are a disgrace." The speaker was boy around Naruto's age, "_a gorgeous boy at that" _thought Naruto. The mystery boy had blood red hair and aqua green eyes surrounded in black _"Eyeliner or is he an insomniac?" _Naruto wondered. He didn't have eyebrows and had a red tattoo on his forehead. He wore the typical Sand Nin gear and had a large gourd on his back. Naruto frowned when he realized that the red head was giving off demonic chakra, in faint almost undetectable traces. Normal shinobi would not have noticed but Naruto did, it was so faint that he couldn't figure out what sort of demon he held. It was obvious that the boy was like him. The boy jumped down to where the other two were. And reprimanded the two. While he was doing so Naruto looked the three over, they all had similar features; _"So they must be siblings or something. Wait a minute I remember hearing about the Kazekage's children being genins maybe it is them?" _As the three Suna Nins went to leave, the red head turned to face Naruto,

"What is your name?" he voice was quite sharp, Naruto raised an eye brow,

"It is polite to say your own name when inquiring the name of others,"

"Garra of the desert," he did not look happy. Naruto stored the name in his memory for later.

"Na-Uzumaki Naruto," Garra nodded and led the other two away.

"I will see you in the Chunin exams," Naruto blinked that sounded more like a demand than a question but he shrugged it off.

"See ya Blondie!" the girl of the Sand team yelled as she walked with her brothers.

"Boss, you are so awesome!" the blond jolted as Konohamaru spoke up, he had forgotten the little boy was there. Grinning to cover up his shock.

"Yeh, I know. Come on let's get some Ramen!" and with that the two traipsed off, Konohamaru thinking of food while Naruto pondered over the red head he had just met. _"He seems familiar, it might just be the demon I am sure he holds in him; but I feel as though I can trust him and that is not a good thing. I should probably talk to Iruka soon; thank god we don't have any missions this week, that last couple were enough to make me sick," _

"Hey Boss, we're here, Boss?"Naruto shook his head, _"I am spacing out so much lately"_ he smiled slightly at Konohamaru's enquiring glance,

"I am fine, just thinking of the Chunin exams and wondering about those Sand nins." Naruto lied convincingly. The two went in and greeted the old man running the stand. After eating they parted ways and Naruto went to talk to Iruka.

**Hey Guys! *Waves hand excitedly* at least my update was quicker this time. Hoped you enjoyed and please drop me a review with opinions, suggestions, critisms, questions, hell even flames, but if you are flaming after nine chapters you must be stupid and therefore I will not take it into account and talk about how dumb you are in my next chappie! Kinda hoping someone flames now, but oh well. Anyway R&R. **

**Moon**


	10. the start of the chunin exams

**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto and never will :'( **

**Updates may be slower as writers block is a bitch. **

**10. The start of the exams**

"Soon are sure it is the Kazekage's son?" He nodded firmly,

"Positive, I heard the Hokage talking about it to the council. I heard Hokage-sama give a description similar to what you said including colouring and the tattoo on his forehead and then I heard the council talking about another 'Demon', but this one worse." Naruto frowned. He did truly hate the civilian council of Konoha they thought they the power to order ninja about and most of the shinobi disliked them as well. Only a few like Sakura and Sasuke liked the fact they were there. Sakura because her mum was on the council and she liked feeling powerful and Sasuke because they favoured him and gave him everything he wanted.

"I don't know why but I feel as though I can trust him and yet I've never met the guy in my life, do you have any ideas Iruka?" Much as he liked to deny it, Naruto was not the best at bookwork, oh, he could make do if he had to; but it would never be a first option.

"I don't know to tell the truth. I think I read somewhere about an alliance between demons but the knowledge is old and shaky. There is not much on demons in Konoha because of all the prejudice so I doubt you will find what you need here." Iruka shrugged. Naruto's frowned deepened,

"I still think that they are stupid prejudice people who don't know right from wrong and the saying 'Know Thy Enemy'." He and Iruka had both complained about the lack of resources to the Hokage. The library was mainly made up of Konoha and their jutsus, there wasn't much at all about other villages or threats. This was mainly the council's fault as both Iruka and Naruto know that the Hokage had tried to get more variety, but the council complained about corrupting the children. They were going to go out for Ramen when they were interrupted by an ANBU with a cat mask on, Iruka recognized the nin as one of the Hokage's personal messengers.

"Umino Iruka, Uzumaki Naruto you are to report to the Hokage for personal business," _Personal Business _was the term used when the messenger did not know what his message was for, after the ANBU left Naruto groaned and flopped onto a chair.

"I thought he gave us the rest of the chunin exams as a break," Iruka shook his head; Naruto could be so lazy sometimes.

"Come on move your ass, he wants to see us." When Naruto refused to move, Iruka grabbed by the collar and shushined them to the Hokage tower.

"Hey let me go, lemme go." Iruka smirked at him, still holding Naruto up by the collar.

"Gladly," the blond was not happy when his arse landed on the hardwood floor of the waiting room and was about to tell Iruka off when the Hokage himself popped his head around the door and motioned to the two of them. When they sat down he grabbed some files from one of the cabinets.

"Do you two remember the bloodline scroll incident? Where you found that girl? Hana I believe?" Iruka nodded, how could he forget that poor girl. Sarutobi sighed, "Well some of the other missions a few of the other ANBU teams have been on since then have produced some alarming results. Five other female bodies with similar descriptions; around 14 or 15, civilians, said to be quite pretty, orphaned have been recovered from various operations that Orochimaru is head of or hired missing nins for. Most of them had been experimented on; the exception was the first girl, your girl. I believe that they were going to take to Orochimaru for experimentation but that nin-Nubi, I think his name was- must have gotten impatient." He stared down at the two undercover-ANBU, "This is an unusual case as Orochimaru is not known for his taste in the female gender, when I taught him and through rumors now, it is clear his sexual appetite lies with young males. I would like you two to keep an eye out for anyone from Sound taking an unusual interest in young teenage girls, especially orphans. Sound has not sent many applications for the chunin exams, only one team I believe, but I want you Naruto to observe them and anything suspicious report to me. Iruka I am sending you as a substitute in the civilian school for a 'fitness course', I will have someone take over your classes; dismissed," he ended, Naruto and Iruka nodded sharply. They shushined out and back to Iruka's home and Naruto collapsed back onto his previous chair.

"What the hell is Orochimaru doing now?" he groaned, the snake sannin was well known throughout the shinobi world, at least to those chunin and above. Genin rarely got much contact with those that were from different villages until they went into their first chunin exams. Iruka smiled sympathetically,

"Come on Kit, it will be over soon and you won't have to hold back any more,"

"Yeh, yeh."

The next week passed rather quickly and the chunin exams came up. Naruto was not the only one excited; he had it on good authority that the rest of the rookie nine was competing in the exams as well. _"God, I wonder if Orochimaru will try anything now."_ He met his team at the building and was pleased to see both Sasuke and Sakura had turned up. They did not speak but just walked into the building together; to present a united front. However they soon stopped on the second floor when they saw a crowd of people and two genins blocking the way, Naruto could that a genjutsu had been placed on the sign for 201 so that it now read 301.

"He-"Naruto yanked the back of Sasuke's shirt back just as he was about to talk. He pulled Sasuke down to his level and hissed at him.

"Look you idiot, this will stop the weakest teams from getting through. Don't comment just to make yourself seem bigger," Sasuke just glared at him and Naruto was afraid he would blow it and they would have more teams then wanted, but luckily the blue haired boy just pushed past everybody and led his team mates past that floor and onto the real third floor.

"Sensei what are you doing here?" Kakashi turned to face his three confused students and his eye curved,

"Well, I happy to see that you are all here; as you would not have been able to compete without your full team anyway." Sakura growled at him and Naruto and Sasuke were secretly surprised she did not attack him, with the look on her face. _"Not to self: Do not piss Sakura off when she is PMSing, it is a scaring sight to behold." _"Well anyway in you go," Kakashi stated nervously as he looked at Sakura's pissed off face.

The two males grabbed their team mate's arms and pushed the door open, leading Sakura inside. Naruto stared around at all the competitors and this got his blood pumping. The Chunin exams had begun.


	11. First Test

**Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto or any recognisable characters.**

**11. First Test**

He looked around the room and saw that rows of desk had been placed in the room. It was probable that the first exam was going to be a test. He stared at where the other genin were standing at the front of the room and saw that many of the genin were trying to intimidate the other genin and snorted quietly. _"Fools, don't they know not to underestimate the strength of someone who looks weak?" _he was startled out of his musings by a screech of,

"SASUKE-KUN!" Ino and her team had arrived; the blond haired rival of Sakura jumped on to Sasuke's back and talked rapidly to him, mean while Sakura was getting redder and redder. She eventually pulled Ino off Sasuke and was about to start screaming at her when a tan hand covered her mouth. She turned and saw Naruto glaring at her.

"Do you want to attract more attention than necessary? Well?" Naruto was not a happy camper. _"Why the hell did Sandaime stick me with such idiots for team mates? Arrogant and cocky and so fucking annoying!" _He let go of Sakura who in turn let go of Ino and they saw the others in the rookie nine come up. Kiba was typically loud and Naruto could see that some of the others teams were glaring at them.

"Would you mind keeping it down? I can tell that this is your first time in the exams," a grey haired boy with glasses came up to the Konoha group. Kiba turned to see him,

"Who are you?" the boy smiled,

"I am Kabuto, a fellow nin," the others relaxed when they saw his headband; however Naruto felt that something was off about this boy. His charka was slightly twisted and Naruto frowned at the unnatural feel of it.

"How did you know this was our first time?" Sakura asked him.

"You are far too loud and overconfident for it to be your second or third time," Sasuke scowled

"How many times have you gone through the exams then," he drawled. Kabuto had a slightly strained smile as he answered,

"This is my seventh time," the rookies aside from Naruto gasped, "However I have collected information about every nin in these exams. Go on ask me about anyone," Naruto looked sceptically at the grey haired boy and Sasuke was just as doubtful,

"Fine, Garra of the desert," Naruto smirked; he knew had felt Sasuke's charka the day he met Garra. Kabuto frowned,

"That's no fun you know his name, anyway Garra of the desert," the grey haired boy flipped through a pack of seemingly blank cards that came from his pouch. "Ah here we are," he held out a card and pumped some charka into it. The confused faces of the other genin disappeared when the blank card was filled in. There was a picture of Garra and underneath were his stats. "Garra of the Desert; rank: genin, missions: 30 D ranks, 5 C ranks and 1 B rank. Has completed all missions without a scratch. Miscellaneous information: youngest son of the Yonidaime Kazekage's. Team made up of siblings, uses sand as a weapon, known to be ruthless." The Konoha genin and other, eavesdropping genin looked at Garra with a multitude of emotions; awe, fear, smugness and challenge.

Naruto frowned again; he was wondering how Kabuto got this information about a Sand genin when he was a Leaf Nin. Surely it wasn't possible for a genin to access the files of the competitors. The other children had gathered round the older boy in awe about his skills it was only the observant, such as Shikamaru, Shino, Neji, and Hinata and himself that stood back. Naruto guessed that they had figured out something was wrong about the boy, Shino, Neji and Hinata were frowning at Kabuto and it took Naruto a few seconds to figure out why. _"Of Course, Shino would be able to tell that something was off due to his charka sensitive bugs and both Hinata and Neji are of the Hyuuga clan; they can see the charka pathways with their byukugan and even without it they are more in tuned then the average Nin. Shikamaru is smart enough to figure out that Kabuto could not have come across such information about a foreign ninja legally, he may not be able to sense the disturbance with Kabuto's charka, but it seems that he is already suspicious of the grey haired nin. Kabuto's charka is not mutated enough for the average ninja to notice, even some jounin might not be able to sense it, but anyone from Aburame or the Hyuuga clan would be able to feel it." _

Naruto turned to Shikamaru and was about to speak when the door slammed open. A big, mean looking man, with a jounin vest stepped in followed by some chunin, who scurried to seats along the wall on either side of the room. The jounin barked at everyone to get to the seat with their name on the paper. Naruto found that he was in between Hinata and a male teen from Rain, Sakura was in the first row on the other side and Sasuke was at the back. He turned to face the jounin who loudly introduced himself as Ibiki, head of the interrogation unit for the ANBU. The man smirked nastily at the seated genin,

"This first exam has a few important rules. Firstly, everyone will all start off with ten points. Second this test is made up of ten questions, each one worth a point, and the test uses a subtraction system. Number three, basically; if you answer all 10 questions correctly, you keep your 10 points. Forth whether you pass will be determined by the combined scores of you and your team mates. Five during the exam, anyone the testing officers catch doing sneaky activities, namely, cheating will have two points subtracted for every offense. Six, there will be some who will lose all their points and be asked to leave. As shinobi trying to reach the level of a Chunin, act as proud shinobi should. Rule seven and the last. Those that lose all their initial points during the test will be failed along with their two team mates. There will be a final question handed out at the forty five minute mark and the exam will last an hour. Begin!"

Naruto took a very quick glance at Hinata's test and then, at the other nin's test. He saw that he had a different test that was placed under a genjutsu to look like the others at first glance. After quietly dispelling the jutsu and muffled a snort at the exam. _"The person who did this must have a sense of humour, okay first question; what is your name? Considering it is written on the paper, what an odd question." _Naruto put his name down and went on to the other questions. _Second question: What is your Quest_? Naruto wrote down; _to complete the chunin exams._ The third question was _"What is your favourite colour? _Naruto snorted and casually wrote down the word _Blue_, he frowned in confusion when he saw that the third question was the end of the exam. _"I wonder why they gave me a dud exam, probably because either way, if I pass or not I still get out of team 7, but wouldn't it have been easier to just give a blank piece of paper under a genjutsu? Oh well." _He turned the paper over and dropped his head to the desk, feigning sleep.

He was 'startled' out of his sleep by Ibiki when forty five minutes had passed. The intimidating man glared at all the teams that remained.

"Alright, listen up it is time for you to hear the tenth question, but before I give it to you, you have to decide if you are even going to take it." He growled. "You have to decide to take the tenth question or not. If you take it and get it wrong, you will never be allowed to take another Chunin Exam and you will be forever stuck as a genin." He smirked at the outraged cries of the genin.

"But, there are people here who have taken the chunin exam before," Kiba cried out.

"I wasn't the proctor before this exam, so my test, my rules," Ibiki stated. "But, I will allow anyone who does not wish to risk a lifetime as a genin to quit now. It will not be held against you and you can test again in six months at the next exams. Are you maggots willing to bet your career on if you can get this question correct?"

It took a few minutes and Naruto saw that the silence in the room wore down many resolves and many genins decided to leave the exams. His attention was diverted when he saw a flash of pink moving. Sakura was going to quit the exam! She gulped when she saw both Sasuke and Naruto staring at her as her hand moved up. She whimpered at the force of the glares and brought her hand back down.

After ten minutes over half the teams had left and it seemed that no more would go. Ibiki stared around the room _"Not bad, it seems there are twenty teams still in this." _"Anyone else?" no one moved a muscle and Ibiki nodded. One of the chunin watching the exam locked the door and Ibiki spoke again, "Everyone still here has passed the first exam," he stated, he almost chuckled at the looks of confusion he garnered from the genin. "Deciding to take the tenth question was the tenth question. The correct answer was to take it. In your career you will be faced with such choices. You were assigned to a mission and it is vital that it be completed. You cannot quit with a mission partially completed because you are uncertain that you will come through it intact. The nerve to press on into the unknown is needed for chunin. Chunin are expected to become examples to younger and less experienced nins and not completing a mission simply because you might die is not a trait of someone who should be chunin." The proctor was stopped from saying anymore when a figure smashed through the window and into the room. The genins stared at the woman in disbelief. She was wearing a mesh shirt underneath a tan trench coat and a mini skirt, the only physical evidence that she was a ninja was by her stance and built body and of course the hitai-ate she wore.

"Hello maggots I am the proctor for the second exam, Mitarishi Anko!"

**Hey Guys! Sorry about the long wait but things came up and yeh. Hope you enjoyed the chapter and R&R!**


	12. The Second testrepost

**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto and never will, *sobs*. **

**Hey guys! Dodges random pointy objects. Sorry about the really late update, a combination of things stopped me from writing including school, **** and writer's block (the thrice damned condition know to all writers) anyway enjoy the chapter and flames will be used warm a homeless bum's feet. **

**Sorry about the chapter, it stuffed up and yeh. thank you for telling me, hopefully this gets through  
**

**12. Second Test **

Naruto and the rest of the potential chunin followed Anko towards an unspecified location. Naruto's eye twitched when he saw the Forest of Death come into view. _"Dammit, I hate this forest. After having to hide from Iruka after pranks I am sure that this will be absolutely terrible." _ Naruto cocked his head to the side when he heard the whistle of a kunai coming towards him. It just missed nicking his cheek and flew in front of him somewhere, he turned and could see that Anko was upset that it missed him; she was about to speak when a grass nin with long hair come up behind her.

"I believe this is yours? It cut some of my precious hair," the nin had a creepy, raspy voice, but the creepiest part was when it gave Anko the kunai with her tongue. Anko grabbed the kunai hesitantly; she was wondering if this nin was a male or a female. The nin smiled and then walked off; the proctor was not the only ninja that shuddered at the aura the Grass nin gave off. She quickly pulled herself together and then handed out forms to all the potential chunin. Many of the nins frowned when they read the forms.

"Why do were we given these?" Naruto groaned at the stupidity of his pink haired team mate. Anko stared the girl,

"I thought it was obvious, you have to sign these forms to say that we are not to be held responsible for any injuries and/or deaths that occur in the Forest, standard forms I assure you," she drawled, Sakura flushed and signed the form. She was one of the last to hand theirs in and had clearly not impressed anyone. "Now your task for this exam is simple for any with intelligence. Each team will be given a scroll; there are two kinds of scrolls ones that say 'earth' and ones that say 'heaven'. Your team's objective is to attain the opposite scroll to the one you are given and then proceed to the tower in the middle of the forest and after five days the next stage of the exams will commence. Begin!" each team was given a scroll and directed to a gate. Sasuke immediately shoved their scroll into the bottom of his kunai pouch as soon as they were out of site of the other teams.

Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke were immediately on their guard as they entered the forest, Naruto let out a low growl as he sensed the chakra of a team nearby. He leapt up onto a branch and then jumped from tree to tree confident that the other two were following him. He led them in a wide circle around the opposing team; he jumped back down to the ground when he felt the other team was far enough in front not to them. Sasuke and Sakura landed down next to him obviously confused,

"What the hell dobe! What were yo-"

"Shut up." He hissed at the male, "There is a team in front of us and I would rather have the element of surprise when we attack them, do you understand? Use your senses and you will see." He stood back when he saw that both Sakura and Sasuke had sensed the other team's chakra. "Now we are going to create an ambush to grab that team's scroll, I don't care if it they have the same scroll as we do, that just means another team out of the running and we might be able to barter with another team that has opposite scrolls. If either of you fuck up these exams for me I will make sure you regret it." He didn't even give them time to think about what he said before he was off chasing after the other team. He caught up to his prey quite quickly and was able to see that they were from Rain. Following them silently he was able to hear them chatting about the exams. He heard them talking about the teams from Leaf and how weak they seemed he grumbled to himself but concentrated on what they were saying and quickly deduced that the boy walking at the end held the scroll and it was the one that his team needed to get to pass the second exam. _"What a bunch of fools, to have the scroll holder at the back means you cannot protect them as quickly as if they were at the front. It's the scroll we want as well, all the better for me that these nins seem to be unaware. I better hurry I want to complete these exams so I can get back to my real job."_ He was fast and silent in his attack. He knocked out the genin and dragged him back creating a kage bushin and henging it to look like the Rain nin, before sending it to replace the one who was knocked out.

Sakura and Sasuke stared at the fluid and powerful movements of their team mate, he attacked with precision not normally known in genin. _"How did the Dobe get so strong? I need that sort of power, not him! Where can I get power like that?" _Naruto turned around oblivious to Sasuke's thoughts and frowned when he felt the irritation leaking off the dark haired boy. He ignored the frustrated teen and searched the unconscious nin, grinning when he felt the scroll in one of the pockets. He gave fox like smirk when an idea popped into his head. He stripped the nin down to his underwear and then strung him between two trees, he placed a repelling jutsu on the boy, he wanted to prank him not hurt him after all. He saw Sasuke and Sakura looking at him in shock.

He had generally just acted the fool while with his genin team and they didn't suspect there was anything more to the Kyuubi container than what he showed at face value. This just lessened the opinion that he and consequently Iruka had of them. Kakashi wasn't much better he seemed to focus more on Sasuke than on Naruto or Sakura and many shinobi had noticed the apparent favouritism and disapproved. Iruka had informed him that Hecate was given specific orders by the council to train Sasuke and ignore Naruto. After being told this Naruto had a closer look at Kakashi's behaviour and could see that sometimes the man wanted to help Sakura or Naruto with their training but seemed to hold himself back and concentrate all his efforts on the Uchiha. However Naruto still thought that he should have tried to find a way to at least teach Sakura, Naruto did not need any training but Sakura was just about useless. She had the book smarts, but not much street smarts. Very good control over her chakra but she didn't have much of it to control in the first place. Her body was weak and she insisted on dieting to 'get Sasuke's attention'. Her weapon precision was academy level. _"I don't think she even knows any jutsu other than the basics, even if Kakashi is not training her you would think that she could go to the library and look stuff or go to another Jounin for training; but no she just stalks Sasuke all the time and she honestly thinks that he will one day turn around and suddenly fall in love with her? She really needs to come back down to earth." _

"Come on, this guy had this scroll we needed so we can go straight to the tower, I don't want to spend any more time out here then I have to." Sasuke was obviously not happy at Naruto taking the role and leading, but his retort was silenced by a gust of wind taking Naruto away from them.

Naruto growled as he caught the scent of snake and only just managed to move so that a giant snake didn't eat him. It lunged at him again and he drew out a kunai and placed an explosive tag on it.

The snake guts were everywhere, and he was very lucky not have any on him, Naruto had placed a shadow clone in front of him at the last minute and that took the blast. He groaned as his clone dispersed and he got the memories of snake guts. Shaking his to get rid of the images, he frowned as he felt a twisted chakra from the direction of Sasuke and Sakura. He ran as fast as he could towards the evil chakra.

He stopped when he realised just whose chakra it was, "_Orochimaru! Oh shit, I haven't seen him since that mission a couple of years back where he was trying to kidnap that little boy with the bloodline to use as his next body." _It did not take long of Naruto to realise that he was after Sasuke because of the Sharing an. He cursed silently and knew that he had to get his team out of there and quickly. _"Sandaime did say I could only show my true strength in an emergency and I think this qualifies," _he sped through the forest following the feel of Orochimaru's unnatural chakra. It did not take him long to reach the others, observing quietly for a minute he could see that Orochimaru's killer intent had paralysed the other two. He saw that Sasuke was just about to give up their scroll and decided to act.

"You a fuckin' coward Uchiha?" he saw with grim satisfaction that he had drawn his team mates' attention away from the murderous snake. "No wonder Itachi left you alive," Sasuke glared at him, Naruto smirked that was the Sasuke he knew. "How about you prove you are a ninja and get the god damn scroll away from ol' snake face." His words shocked the other two into action and Sasuke and Sakura sprung back. Orochimaru growled and leapt for Sasuke but was stopped by Naruto's foot. The body stealer flew into one of the trees. Naruto didn't waste any time and jumped to where Sasuke and Sakura were. He hooked their arms around him and performed the necessary hand signs. He saw Orochimaru coming for them just before they disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Hold on tight," he said, last thing they heard was a scream of hatred.

_Omake _

"Naruto! Iruka! Get here this instant!" the two children raced in and stared at the Hokage. He glared at them and pointed to his ceiling, there were little prints all over the roof of the Hokage's office, Naruto smiled innocently at the formidable shinobi, "Why are there pig footprints all over your ceiling Jiichan?" the old man's eyebrow twitched and the two pranksters knew that they had to get out of there and fast.

"Let me show you a replay of what I saw in my orb at my home not too long ago." The seven and thirteen year old pranksters gulped, they knew they were caught. Sandaime placed a jutsu on his orb, grey smoke floated up and formed a rectangular screen, a picture flickered up and the three watched the memory.

"_Come on Ruka, before he gets back." Naruto hissed at his partner. Iruka grumbled as he lifted the younger boy onto his shoulders, the younger boy had a pig in his arms. The pig had mud all over its feet and looked very confused as Naruto lifted the piglet above his head and placed his feet on the ceiling. The two children moved all across the room, Naruto helping the pig 'walk' on the ceiling. Iruka snorted as he heard what Naruto was singing softly. _

"_Spider Pig, spider pig does whatever a spider pig does. Can he swing from a web, no he can't 'cause he's a pig. Watchout he is a spider pig!" the two boys quickly finished up and left the office. Naruto carried the still confused pig out. _

Sandaime turned to face the culprits who looked at him in complete innocence, he looked at them sternly.

"What was the point of decorating my office with pig prints? Hhmm?" the two kids looked at each before Iruka spoke up, "You wouldn't let us try and prank the ANBU head quarters so we decided to prank your 'head quarters'.


	13. Chapter 13Preliminaries

**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto**

**Hey everybody, this update is late for a number of reasons, but the main ones are my USB got lost with the completed chapter; which is bloody depressing. Also I lost my inspiration for this story and was debating on pulling it, so yeh and I can only get on the computer to write every Thursday for an hour.**

**Ch.14-Preliminaries **

Naruto sighed in relief as he landed in the tower in the forest of death and dropped his two team mates. _"Man, that snake is scary. Thank you Ruka for making me train here." _After they got their bearings back and realised where they were Sasuke and Sakura turned to Naruto for an explanation. Naruto rubbed the back of his head in nervousness,

"Uhh, why don't we open the scrolls and see what happens?" Sasuke and Sakura shared a look and seemed to come to a decision before Sasuke stepped forward with the scroll he had and Naruto pulled out his.

A fairly large plume of smoke followed the opening of the scroll; all three were on guard as a figure could be seen. Naruto grinned as he recognised the chakra signature of the shadow;

"Ruka!" Iruka stumbled backwards Naruto threw himself upon his 'big brother'. Iruka looked at the other two and saw that they had lowered their weapons and where looking at the two adopted siblings. Naruto spoke up and dragged all the attention onto him.

"So why are you here? Has it got something to do with the exams?" his expression appeared wide and opened but Iruka could see that Naruto was annoyed that he didn't tell him about some aspects of the exams.

"Well, I have come to explain the next part, do you see that scroll up there?" he pointed to a large scroll rolled out on the wall behind them, the phase was missing some words though, Sakura quickly figured out what words it was missing and how it coincided with the scrolls that said 'Heaven' and 'Earth'. _"I knew she actually had a brain, despite all her fawning over Sasuke," _Naruto was relieved that Sakura had finally shown some of her legendary (in the academy) brain power. Iruka smiled and spoke,

"Yes, you are correct Sakura. Earth means body and Heaven means mind in this instance, for example in 'Heaven' you are quite strong, but in 'Earth' lies your weakness, the opposite can be said for Naruto." Iruka inwardly smiled at the glare shot at him. "Anyway, you have been assigned rooms and so get some rest and be ready for the preliminaries tomorrow." Iruka then disappeared in a plume of smoke and Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura found their rooms.

_(Next day) _

Team seven met up at noon the next day with all the other Konoha teams that made it through and proceeded into the room where the preliminaries would take place. Many other teams were there, but it was obvious that less than half remained form the first test. The Hokage and many other jounin senseis' were at the front of the room and the genin stood in lines before them.

"Welcome to the chunin games here in Konoha, we are having preliminaries as there are to many of you to proceed to the next round" The Hokage spoke in a powerful and attention commanding voice, the genin stood awed at the one nicknamed 'professor'. "Now the board will go through names and pick two out, those two will fight each other and the winner will proceed on to the final test in a month."

"Why do we need preliminaries? What do you mean there are too many of us?" The speaker was Kankuro of the Sand and he looked annoyed. The Hokage raised an eyebrow at the teen,

"For the final test, many Kage's and dignitaries will show and they do not want too many fighters as it leads to a long event. Now," Sandaime turned to face the genin's once again, "Anyone who wishes to quit may do so now and they can take the exam next time. Dropping out holds no consequences for your team, now this is your proctor, Gekko Hayate." Naruto was instantly alert as Kabuto raised his hand, Naruto could sense that he was still at full strength and had a majority of his chakra left. Naruto made a quick hand sign to Iruka who was one of the ANBU hidings in the shadows.

The Hokage was obviously suspicious as well, but let Kabuto leave and knew that at least one ANBU was following him. The Hokage then bid the genin's good luck and left along with a majority of the jounins, all the shinobi got off the field and watched as the Board sped through random names until the final two names were

Uchiha Sasuke and Akado Yoroi. The two genin looked pumped for their math and quickly jumped onto the field.

The winner became obvious as Sasuke beat up Yoroi and avoided his chakra absorbing techniques. After Sasuke was declared winner the next match was called, Naruto felt a tap on his shoulder before the names had finished and turned to see Iruka in the shadows. He went over and subtlety leaned against the walls Iruka whispered to him,

"The Hokage has allowed you to use more of your skills in your match in order to win and go on to the third test. Don't use anything too dangerous or signifying and you will be fine." Naruto did a little dance in his head as Iruka faded away and would have pronounced his joy to the world, but did not want to draw attention to him, little did he know however that someone was watching him. The blond haired boy ran back to where Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi were, looking to the floor, he could see that Shino was kicking his opponent; Abumi Zaku's butt. Using his destruction bugs Shino won the match and was granted the right to move on. The next fight was between Kankuro and Misumi Tsurugi, which Kankuro won easily. Naruto was getting rather anxious as he really wanted to fight, but unfortunately the next match was between Sakura and Ino, many of the Konoha genin were shocked and amused none more so than Sasuke himself. It was well known through the rookies that Sakura and Ino used to be the best of friends until their infatuations with Sasuke broke them apart. _"This will be interesting to see who wins; both girls appear to be at the same level and both a very small amounts of Chakra," _However Sasuke was not the only one disappointed with the ending of the match, it was a draw as both girls knocked each other out. Naruto groaned at the pathetic match and hoped for more excitement or his turn next. Alas it was not to be as the next combatants were Temari and Tenten.

Naruto winced as he saw the match ups and felt sorry for Tenten, _"Temari is the worst person that she could have gotten, especially if Temari knows how to use that fan properly." _Naruto was right and although it was an exciting match, with weapons flying and speeding winds, Tenten lost the match and Temari of the Sand moved on. The next match up was Shikamaru and a genin from the Sound named Kin. Naruto let out a growl and the others looked at him,

"When will I get to fight," he whined to Kakashi, "It is not fair." Kakashi just looked at him and ruffled his hair, which just annoyed Naruto further, "Hmph, I am telling Iruka that you are being mean to me," the grey-haired man turned his head so fast his neck cracked.

"Maa-maa, Naruto I am sure your match will be next, don't worry and tell Iruka I was helping okay?" Naruto smirked,

"We'll see se-" Naruto's words were cut off as Hayate announced the winner of the match to be Shikamaru. Naruto snorted in surprise and yelled down at the Nara,

"I thought you were too lazy to make an effort?" Shikamaru just shrugged and went back to where he was standing. The board flickered between the four people left and Naruto yelled out in glee as he was chosen as one of the fighters, him and Kiba. Jumping down the two faced each other, Akamaru at Kiba's side. Hayate looked between them and soon enough yelled out for them to start.


	14. Fight

**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto and never will**

**CH. 14- Fight**

"Yes! This will be so easy," Kiba cried out mockingly to Naruto, who just raised an eyebrow,

"So you are all words then dog-breath?" the Inuzaka growled before feeding a pill to Akamaru. The blonde 'genin' sighed, he had wanted to fight the cute, mysterious red head not this loudmouth. He looked up at all the other genin and grinned suddenly. _"Time to show them what a 'dobe' can do, I shouldn't prolong his torture, I should be nice...nah." _While he was thinking Naruto missed the name and start of Kiba's attack but was able to dodge the spinning boy and dog.

"How rude," Naruto admonished before disappearing from the naked eye. Kiba only noticed him when he felt a hit to his back. Kiba growled as he stood up, but was surprised to hear a faint whimper, _"Wait a minute that sounds like Akamaru!" _Turning around he became angry when he saw that Naruto had the dog by the neck, Akamaru was unconcious. That was all it took for Kiba to lose control, growling incoherently he pounced on Naruto who looked somewhat startled at his reaction. _"I didn't think he loved his companion so much, he gives no evidence of this devotion normally," _Naruto thought as he dodged the wild attacks from Kiba before taking the pup out of his misery and with a yellow flash the Inuzaka was knocked out.

The crowd clapped politely as Kiba and Akamaru were carried off the field and Naruto returned to his previous place, Iruka now there in plain sight in his chunin uniform. Naruto grabbed the water bottle that Iruka gave and whispered to his 'brother'

"Hey, Ruka Kakashi seems to be wanting your attention by intense staring," Iruka smiled grimly before slapping the blonde who growled and tackled the 'chunin'. A quick, playful fight proceeded before sand lifted Naruto off Iruka and Genma grabbed Iruka. Iruka was pulled outside by the senbon chewing jounin while Naruto was carried to the controller of the sand.

"Hey Garra." Naruto smiled hesitantly very aware of everyone's eyes on them, the red head looked bemusedly at the blonde. Naruto had to strain to hear the jinchuriki's mumblings.

"Too powerful to be any other, but how was it captured? Are you sure mother?" Naruto narrowed his eyes as the puzzle pieces fell into place. The 'mother' that Garra spoke to must be one of the biju, most probably the ichibi. The scent of demon was too weak for any other, but the Ichibi and Kyuubi had an alliance that went back eons. _"Most likely something happened to make Shuhaku go mad, he would have recognized me other wise. Wait a minute I sense another force, not demonic but holy? what the hell?"_

Garra looked at the Kyuubi jinchuriki in confusion,

"Mother says you are like me, but stronger and that I should not fight you. However my existence relies on killing." Naruto thought back to the reports he had read on the Kazekage and his want for power and strength, as well as his disdain that Konoha was considered the strongest shinobi village. _"No doubt was the first to put his son's hand up for the jinchuriki position, what a freak!" _The blonde realised that he had to be let go so that Garra could go to his match with Lee, however Garra was not anxious to do so. Naruto carefully considered his options; he could break the hold Garra had on him, _"But that would be boring." _He could also do something that would shock the masses and let him try something he had been wanting to do to the handsome red head. _"He he he, this should be fun," _and with that thought in mind, he leaned forward as if to headbutt the other and kissed him straight in the mouth!

Garra was wide eyed as he felt Naruto's lips on his own, it was his first kiss. He was shocked for a moment before closing his eyes and returning the pressure on his lips. Garra was so involved with the kiss that when Naruto started to pull back he reached around and put his hands through the blonde's hair. Naruto knew that he wanted more as soon as Garra returned his kiss, but realised that Garra had lost control of the sand and they were just standing there kissing so he reluctantly started to pull back, he was more than a little surprised when the red head pulled him closer. Eventually they came up for air, and just stared at each other.

_"Wow, that was great! So glad I did that, let's just hope he will not kill me later," _Naruto gulped nervously as Garra came out of his thoughts, and spoke to him, quite stoically

"We will meet after this is over," the blonde nodded quickly and the red head jumped down to the arena where Lee was standing gobsmacked. As were everyone else in the stadium. Naruto went over each face he knew, mentally cataloging their reactions. _"Well, Garra's teamates and sensei seem very surprised and intrigued whereas Sakura looks shocked, horrified and relieved? Sasuke looks angry for some reason and Kakashi is just staring at Ruka, no surprise there but Ruka is being held by Genma? What the Hell! Well at least Genma and I get along, still need to interrogate him though. Anyway Ruka looks surprised and calculating, that cannot be good for me and probably Garra, while Genma looks amused and happy, probably 'cause he is holding Ruka. The rest of the genin and their sensei's just looked shocked, except team ten who is a little horrified and the Hokage who, like Genma looks very amused. Silly old man," _He was brought out of his thoughts by sounds of fighting in the arena, observing Lee losing to Garra was not much of a surprise, but Naruto knew that he would be heartbroken. Hearing the weights fall to the floor and how much Lee was carrying was very surprising, _"His internal chakra must be helping him sustain those weights for long periods of time, although he can not use that chakra in jutsus like the rest of us he is able to help his body with it, fascinating." _

Naruto walked over to his team mates and sensei, who had broken out of their shock and were watching the fight, Sasuke was staring at Garra in hatred, Naruto just rolled his eyes _"Probably thinking that he deserves the power that Garra has, silly avenger." _Kakashi turned to Naruto when he finally noticed him standing there,

"Naruto," Sasuke and Sakura turned around in shock, "May I ask what that little tryst was about with the Sand boy? and why was Iruka with Genma?" Kakashi stressed that last sentence and the blonde sighed.

"I don't know what Iruka was doing the Genma, but they do make a good couple don't they?" He grinned mischievously at the man who started twitching, Naruto wanted to push him just that little bit further, "I mean Iruka was not upset with Genma as thy are still standing quite close to each other, talking intimately." He pointed to where Iruka and Genma where indeed standing close to each other and talking, Iruka was chuckling quietly and Genma smiled happily. Kakashi dug his fingers into his palm to calm himself down but it was a futile exercise as Genma touched Iruka shoulder, he snapped and shouted clearly across the stadium.

"Genma!" He growled, "get your hands off my Iruka!" Kakashi launched himself across the arena where the fighters had stopped to watch as Kakashi attacked the senbon sucking jounin who had jumped back in shock. Naruto gave a small smile when he saw how mad Iruka was getting, _"Hakate's going to get his ass kicked, hell freakin' yeh!" _He looked down at the arena and saw that Garra was staring at him, he knew that Garra was anxious to talk to him about the kiss and why the ichibi didn't want to fight him. "Finish it quickly" He mouthed to the other jinchuriki who nodded and returned his attention to the match. Naruto turned to watch Iruka.

_"Must not kill, must not kill famous Jounin," _Iruka lost his battle with restraint and performed the jutsu that every child he had ever taught was still afraid of whether they were jounin or genin, the Scary, Big Head jutsu!

"Stop this nonsense immediately!" he shouted at the brawlers, every leaf genin in the area shivered in fright, trying to repress memories of what happened to them when Iruka-sensei released that jutsu. Iruka grabbed each man by the collar and pulled them upwards and away from each other. He glared at them both, Kakashi more then Genma.

"Hakate Kakashi," Iruka boomed as the man cowered, "What the hell is your problem, you bloody wanker! Attacking Genma for no reason, behaving like a child, disrupting the chunin exams and giving a bad impression to the foreign shinobi." He looked at the sniggering Genma who paled drastically as he realised that Iruka was about to yell at him, "Why could you not just walk away and jutsu out? That would have made you the better man, but no, you had to prove your 'manliness' or some rubbish like that and fight Kakashi. Both you will sit apart for the remainder of the fight, do you understand me? Well!" He shook them both until they nodded and murmured some form of agreement. To the amusement of everyone else in the stadium Iruka then placed Kakashi at one end of the Stadium and performed the secret sticking jutsu that all genin were familiar with, and then did the same thing to Genma at the other end of the stadium, before going to stand next to a hysterically laughing Naruto and the rest of team seven. Iruka turned to see that everyone was watching him, he frowned,

"Well, isn't there a match supposed to be commencing at the moment?" Those words startled Lee and Garra into action, and the fight began again, Garra attempting to finish it fast so that he could wrangle some answers out of the blonde who kissed him, he had got back his emotionless composure and scary mask, he ruthlessly attacked Lee without, aiming for maximum damage. Lee performed the Lotus and for a moment it looked like he had won, but the only damage to Garra was the loss of his sand amour.

Garra let out a snarl before attacking with double the force he had before. Lee did not stand a chance and was clobbered, the red head was about to go in for the killing blow, when Naruto hopped down onto the field.

"Leave him Garra, he does not need to die." Garra cocked his head thoughtfully,

"It will prove my existence to mother and so I must," he replied coldly, Naruto's eyes narrowed as the sand seemed to have a life of its own and was trying to attack Lee. Naruto groaned as the referee called disqualification as he had defended the fallen genin. He knew he shouldn't have gotten involved, but it was the right thing,

"Lee may not see it that way," He muttered as Gai-sensei came and took Lee to the medic-nins. Garra was announced as the winner and the numbers for the final test was drawn. The hokage once again addressed the hopefuls,

"Well this has been one of the most interesting preliminaries that I have seen in a long while," he stared at Naruto, Iruka, Genma and Kakashi who all flushed in embarrassment. "Let us hope that the third test will run smoothly, it will take place in a month." After speaking more about expectations and the ilk the Hokage released them all to do as they wish for the next month. He requested the presence of Naruto and Iruka, when they were situated in his office Sarutobi let down his aura of strength and appeared to the world an old man. He spoke tiredly to the two,

"Orochmaru was been spotted in the village after the second test," the two ANBU tensed, they knew this would not be good, "It appears he is looking for a girl to experiment on and then impregnate, Orichimaru wishes for a blood heir." Naruto paled as did Iruka, they knew this wasn't good. Sarutobi spoke for a little while more before releasing them.

Naruto wanted to speak to Iruka about everything but knew Garra was waiting for him so he made it quick.

"Ruka I need to talk to Garra about 'things' I should be home by 9, we will talk then." Bidding his brother farewell Naruto made his way over to way Garra was and lead the red head to the park.

Garra stared at all the green, in Suna everything was dry and dusty so it was a major difference. He turned to face Naruto and motioned for him to explain everything. Naruto scratched the back of his head,

"Well, I am a jinchuriki like yourself, I hold within me the Kyuubi no Kitsune whereas you possess the Ichibi no Takuni..."

"I hold my mother within me," Garra stated coldly, Naruto sighed this was going to be difficult,

"No, you have the one tailed raccoon demon, I know because Kyuubi can sense him, however there appears to be another presence withing you which I wish to know about, may I see your seal?" Naruto hesitated with the last question as he knew he would not be willing to do so, but perhaps Garra would, his hopes lifted as Garra lifted up his sleeve and showed the container seal. Naruto gasped as he saw the incomplete seal, he reached out to touch it and was not surprised to see Garra stiffened up. "Relax I just want to see this seal." He murmured soothingly, speaking aloud he recited what he saw about the seal, "Well it is incomplete that is of no question, however this seal would not be able to hole one of the bijiu by itself even if it was complete, wait a minute this was to seal to life forces, there are two rings around it, one to cage the demon obviously and the other... appears to be holding holy person within more likely a priest. that is why it can hold Shuhaku when it is not meant to the priest's body must have been sacrificed to restrain the demon after it was put into you, but that would have turned his spirit, which would be held within the seal mad. Another person must have been sacrificed you the demon to have been put into you, body and soul," He looked up at Garra who appeared to have come to terms with the fact he was a jinchuriki, and it was not his 'mother' who... wait a minute mother? Naruto stared at the Kazekage's son,

"It was your mother who was sacrificed wasn't it? That is why you thought it was your mother inside you, oh Garra,"

Garra looked extremely upset, but Naruto was still surprised that when it sunk in, Garra began crying silently. Naruto gathered him up in his arms and held the male until the tears tapered off and his mask reappeared. Naruto sighed and started to pull Garra with him, they continues until they reached Naruto's apartment. He pulled the worn out boy onto the couch and went to make some tea. Garra composed himself and ignored the screaming voice that he now knew was either the priest or Shuhaku in his head, looking around he saw that the apartment was clean but homey. What Naruto didn't realise was that he had been forgetful in clearing up since his last mission and under the couch Garra's foot knocked against something wooden.


	15. Shocked

**Diclaimer: Do not own Naruto and never will :'(**

**Sorry for the short chapter and lack of speedy updates in advance as I have exams at the moment.**

**15. Shocked**

Feeling curious for once, Garra pulled out the object beneath the couch. He was startled to see a Kitsune ANBU mask, Naruto was ANBU? He was so shocked that he did not hear Naruto coming out of the kitchen, he did however hear the sound of dishes breaking as Naruto dropped the tray.

"Uh, Garra this isn't what it looks like?" His words sounding like a question, Garra sent out his third eye to scan the surroundings and when it came back clear, he held up the mask to the blonde 'genin',

"Explain," he said stoically, Naruto knew he would not be able to get out of it. He placed a secrecy jutsu around the room and sat down, rubbing the back of his head.

"Okay, but first you have to swear on your blood that what I say will not go further than this room, if it does I have permission to kill you and would be well in my right to do so, understand?" Garra nodded sharply and Naruto continued. "Well as you probably realised I am in ANBU and the Hokage gives me and my partner missions just like any other. My current mission is to protect the clan heirs, more specifically Uchiha Sasuke, I will not tell you why." Naruto answered Garra's question before he could ask it, they sat there in silence for a while,

"What about the kiss?" Garra asked, Naruto blushed to the red head surprise,

"Well, I needed you to let me go and I think you're handsome, so that was the option that appealed to me most and I am really sorry and..."

"Shut up," Naruto stopped his rambling adruptly and stared at his crush. Garra stared back,

"I think I am attracted to you," Naruto gulped, he didn't think that, well he suspected after the kiss, but...

"Can we kiss? I mean, again?" Garra nodded slowly before reaching out towards Naruto, holding his face he leaned in,

"Thank you," and brushed his lips against Naruto, just for a moment, but both were hooked. More forcefully, Garra kissed him again and Naruto wrapped his arms around the older jinchuriki holding him in place and returning the pressure on his lips equally. It was not long before tongues entered the mix and Naruto moaned as he lost the fight for dominance, they broke apart panting.

"Wow, you are a good kisser," Naruto panted, looking at his 'boyfriend?'. Garra gave a slight smile, it was the first in a long time that he felt happy, now if he could just sleep and not have to listen to his father his life would be perfect. Now to ask Naruto the question,

"Naruto, will you go out with me?" Naruto shouted yes and pounced on the other boy. He was going to date a gorgeous red head who knew about him both his secret career and the fact he was a jinchuriki. _"My life just got happier," _he thought, once again losing the tongue fight of dominance to Garra.

After a long while the two once again broke for air. They stared at each other, just memorising the features of the other. Trying to understand that there was another like them. Finally Garra broke the silence,

"Do you know anyone who could fix my seal?" Naruto lit up,

"I am almost positive that I can,"

_(With Iruka)  
_Iruka watched Naruto lead the red head off and turned to the Academy, he had to pick up some essays to be marked. Everything went smoothly until he walked out the door of the school, standing there was Genma who was smiling at him. Blushing at the handsome jounin Iruka walked up to him and asked why he was at the academy.

"'Cause I wanted to see you, and ask you out for lunch," his shaking hands betraying how nervous he was, Genma waited for the cute chunin to answer Iruka blushed harder and nodded slowly. Shiranui Genma had caught his eye a while back, the nin was always so friendly and cheerful.

Genma lit up and started to drag Iruka towards a little, high-end cafe unlike his 'date' with Hakate, he was chuckling as he was pulled to a seat.

The two ordered some tea and while they were waiting they talked.

"So Genma, why did you ask me out?" Iruka tried to be stern, he didn't want to be used, but he did like the jounin a lot so it was hard.

"Asking the hard questions first then Iruka? Well, not to be stalkerish I have been watching you in the mission room for a while and you are so fiery when you are angry, it is really hot." Genma told him bluntly, Iruka blushed again. The jounin continued, "After a time, I saw that you were also really kind towards your friends and your students, I really like you, the reason I didn't act before is that Hakate told everyone you were his and I didn't want to break up a relationship so..."

"What!" Iruka was fuming, the reason the guy he liked didn't ask him out was because of Hakate making false claims? "When I get my hands on that bastard, I'll burn all those bloody icha icha books and then..." He was stopped by Genma laughing,

"So I take there was no relationship then?" Iruka nodded firmly,

"Damn straight, he is just a bloody stalker who will not leave me alone." Genma grinned but was stopped from saying something by the arrival of their tea. After ordering their meals, the couple talked and talked learning as much as they could about each other.

As Iruka went home after his date with Genma he touched his lips. _"He is great, I can't believe he asked me out again!" _Iruka walked into his dark house and put his things down, before turning on the lights.

"What were you doing with Shiranui Genma?" A cold voice spoke from the lounge. Iruka swore and turned around, _"Dammit, I was distracted, wait, why the hell is Kakashi here?_ _" _After voicing his question, Kakashi sighed and walked over.

"I heard that you were on a date with him, why? Why do you willingly date him and not me?" Kakashi shook Iruka by the shoulders, seemingly angry, but Iruka could see he was hurt. _"Damn it I have to let him down gently" _He pulled the jounin's hands off him and led him to the table.

"Kakashi, I know you have feelings for me, but I don't like you like that and so," Iruka was stopped by Kakashi grabbing him again,

"No, I want you, can't we just have one time together? Then you will see," Iruka was horrified as Kakashi tried to grab the zipper on his chunin vest, he shoved the jounin away,

"No Kakashi I don't like you. Frankly I find you rude, perverted and a shit sensei for Naruto. Get your shit together before you try to date someone else." Iruka snarled and for a second his ANBU persona was revealed, but only a second and then Shadow Killer was gone. Hakate looked confused, but Iruka did not give him time to respond before shoving out of his house and activated the chakra seals every house in konoha has.

Whenever a building is constructed, specialist shinobi are hired to places seals around the home, that when activated, stop any unwanted guests. Iruka, with the help of Naruto had enhanced and booby-trapped the seals around both their homes and as such no one except themselves could get into their homes without their permission. Iruka waited for Hakate's chakra to fade before allowing his body to go into a comfortable position rather than fight mode. He went and got himself a drink. Walking back into the lounge room he was again startled by a figure sitting on the couch.

"Naruto! You scared me I thought you were Kakashi," Naruto laughed and then frowned,

"What, Ruka why would you think I was Kakashi?" Iruka sighed and explained his situation, Naruto actually growled before going to walk outside, he was stopped by Ruka's hand on his arm.

"Don't Kit, I spoke to him and I think he was cowed, but if he tries again I expose myself, by beating the shit out of him. Happy?" Naruto nodded but was still not happy, he allowed himself to be led to the couch given a drink.

"Now about what Sandaime was saying before?"

"I find it absolutely disgusting that Orochimaru is willing to do something like that, it is bad enough with just him. Imagine a mini him?"Naruto gave a short bark of laughter at the image Iruka created. The blonde gave a twisted grin,

"Yeh that is disturbing, he wants to use the child as a body." Iruka gasped,

"How do you know?"

"Unfortunately it makes sense, I've read about the body swap shit he does. The main reason the body's fail is because the soul and body are not compatible and so the body rots away, family is more compatible for a soul. The body of his own child would be ideal for the sick fuck to use as it would already be semi-compatible due to the connection between Orochimaru and his biological child." Naruto sighed, only one other person in his knowledge had ever tried something remotely similar. A man wised for immortality and realised the connection between himself and his son, unfortunately for him the child was not his, his wife had cheated on him and so the body withered away, both man and child dead.

**Hey guys shameless plug here, can you check out my new story and tell me what you think?**


	16. Month and third exam

**Disclaimer: do not own Naruto and never will**

**Ch. 16. Month and third exam.**

The month until the third exam passed quietly, Naruto trained with the ANBU and Iruka while still continuing his relationship with Garra unknown to many other leaf shinobi. Iruka started a tentative relationship with Genma but they decided to take it slow. Kakshi was still sniffing around Iruka and the display of Iruka's ANBU persona(A/N: Check last part of last chapter) caused the jounin to be suspicious, but still he panted after him. It was a relief when Kakashi was told to train Sasuke for the third round and as such both mals were away pretty much the whole time, which Naruto was also grateful for. Sasuke had been getting annoyed and curious that everytime he went to Naruto's place to spar, Garra would be there and both boys were generally out of breath, Naruto was just glad he could pash his boyfriend in peace.

Shino was training with Kurenai and his own clan, and Shikamaru, to his dismay was ruthlessly trained by both Asuma and his own father who were keen for him to become chunin. Both were becoming good friends to Naruto who had dropped almost all of his clown mask when around them. The Sand siblings were also training quite hard and using Konoha's resources to their advantage. Kankuro and Temari had gained all the knowledge they could of Konoha's wind and puppetry techniques and created new attacks, Garra was also training with Naruto and Iruka who was angry when he discovered that Naruto had told the red head about his proper career. It was a few days before he even thought about talking to Naruto again, let alone Garra but Iruka slowly came round and when Garra revealed the plot of his father and Orochimaru's invasion he was staunch in supporting him when he revealed it to the Hokage.

**-Flashback-**

**"Come in." Naruto held Garra's hand and Iruka placed his own on the boy's shoulders and squeezed for a moment before walking into the Hokage's office. The Sandaime looked at the trio confused and was even more puzzled when Naruto asked him to activate the security wards around the office. **

**"Naruto, Iruka and Garra-san what do I owe this pleasure, confusing though it may be?" Naruto blushed and Garra stepped forward. **

**"Orochimaru and my father are planning an invasion on Konoha." He said bluntly, Sarutobi shocked and suspicious, asked**

**"Why are you telling me this? And do you have proof of these plots?" The third looked to his two most trusted shinobi, Naruto was nodding along with Garra and looking to Iruka he could see that despite the young man's indifferent facade, his body language gave him away as a supporter of the Sand nin. He was shaken out of his thoughts by Garra's next statement.**

**"The Yamanaka's reside in your village do they not? Their mind walking techniques are legend and they could show you I am telling the truth." The Hokage was taken aback by the apparent faith in his shinobi's abilities from a foreign ninja, but nodded and sent out a message for Inoichi to come to the tower. A short while later the information Garra spoke of was discovered truthful and the hokage dismissed them to think over things. **

**-Flashback End-**

The hokage revealed to them a week before the exams that most of the jounin were informed and all available ANBU were on alert and were to be stationed at keys points throughout the exam. All trusted chunin were given orders to escort all civilians into the hideouts for during and after the exams and invasion. For once Iruka had no complaints and was quite surprised at the respect the jounin gave to him when they discovered he was one of the leaders and responsible for the civilians safety.

Garra and Naruto were trained ruthlessly by Iruka in preperation; Taijutsu, Ninjutsu and Genjutsu. Naruto found a formidable opponent in Garra for Ninjutsu but overwhelmed him in Taijutsu. The fact that they were jinchuriki only enhanced the difficulty of their training as their bodies could withstand more and healed faster than a normal human's. All in all by the night before the exam both boys felt very prepared for anything, Naruto was itching to take down Neji and Garra equally keen to destroy the Uchiha's ego and stop the looks he saw him giving Naruto.

"Hey you two ready?" Shikamaru did not look all that different but Naruto knew that he was much stronger, the same with Shino. He and Garra met the two other genin at the entrance and were planning on walking in together.

"Yeh Shika we're good, Garra is pumped although he doesn't seem it." The blonde dodged the hand made of sand that was aimed for his head and turned to grin at his partner, who merely sighed and walked forward. The three caught up, Naruto grabbing Garra's hand in his and the four walked into the middle of the arena where the other contestants were, even Sasuke surprisingly. _"Kakashi wanted to see Iruka no doubt and if the rumors about him and Genma were true, most likely the reason he is on time."_ Looking up Naruto could see that Kakashi was staring at Iruka in shock and disbelief, _"Probably 'cause Genma is holding him and making him laugh," _Garra too had looked him and gave a small smile at the picture Naruto's brother and his brother's lover were making. The two were brought out of their thoughts by Shika giving a small cough. Most of the Konoha shinobi and Sand nin were staring at Naruto and Garra...who were still holding hands. Naruto blushed but kept a firm grip on the red head hand, he was not ashamed of him and the blond did not really feel the need to hide their relationship. Up in the hokage's box Sarutobi looked on the boys in amusement,

"Did you know about thisss outrage Hokage-sama?" The Sandaime turned to the clearly angry Kazekage and raised an eyebrow at his slip. He had figured that the Orochimaru was the Kazekage when he saw the sound shinobi looked toward him when asked probing questions, oh, they were subtle but Sarutobi was not called the Professor for nothing. He chuckled,

"Of course Naruto couldn't keep his mouth shut, good for relations though isn't it?" Inwardly smirking the Hokage turned to the proctor and nodded.

"The third part of the Chunin exams will now commence, the matches are; Hyuuga Neji and Uzumaki Naruto, Subaku Garra and Uchiha Sasuke, Subaku Kankuro and Aburame Shino and Subaku Temari and Nara Shikamaru. Will the first two fighters please come forward and the others genin are requested to stand above in the stands." All other ninja left the area, Shika and Shino wishing Naruto luck and Garra to the surprise of his siblings, kissed Naruto quickly before teleporting himself with the use of his sand. Naruto and Neji faced each other, the procotor ordered them to bow and then jumped out of the way, announcing that the match had begun.

Neji activated his blood limit and sneered at Naruto, "Fact has already predicted my victory, it is pointless for you to fight," his superior tone made Naruto snort,

"Oh I am so sure of that, so do you blame fate for everything? How silly of you." Neji glared at Naruto and attacked, _"Foolish Hyuuga, your style relies on close combat, I am no doubt faster than you," _the 'dobe' smirked as he dodged all of Neji attacks and laughed at his frustration and the disbelief of most of those in the stands. Going to at the middle of the arena he waited for Neji to come with firing range, Naruto cocked his head and released the senbon he had on his person, those up in the stands were shocked.

"I didn't think he knew how to use senbon, Sakura?" Ino turned to her ex-best friend, who looked equally surprised.

"Ne-neither did I, he was always such a dobe until the exams."

"Well obviously not anymore," Ino turned to the rest of the konoha tweleve who were not competiting and asked them about Naruto's skill, all of them said that they didn't no anything about it.

Garra smirked from where he was standing, Naruto was good. He didn't want to show off his power, but his brains and his attacks alluded to the fact that he was stronger and smarter than people in the village thought.

"Good boy,"

Neji only sneered and began another jutsu. Up in the stands Hiashi Hyuuga was stunned when he recognised the jutsu, it was a main house jutsu!

"Kaiten!"

Naruto smirked when Neji was hit with at least three of the senbon. The older boy pulled them out and continued to attack unaware of the sleeping agent the senbon were coated in. It took five minutes for the sleeping agent to take effect, Naruto was surprised _"That would have put a normal nin out in 3 minutes, Neji is stronger than I thought. Oh well, I still win." _After Neji had collapsed and the proctor anounced Naruto's win, it did take a couple of seconds for those in the stands to realise what was happening and start to clap. Naruto made a shadow clone to take Neji's body up towards the medics. He then jumped up to where the other contestants were.

Iruka looked on in pride as he little brother defeated the Hyuuga prodigy, _"I knew he could do it without revealing any 'special' skills, well done Naruto," _he was shaken out of his thoughts by Genma whispering in his ear,

"He is good, but I like you better," Iruka blushed and hit Genma on the arm.

"Not here," The other just grinned.

Garra wrapped his arms around Naruto as the he walked towards them.

"Proud of me Garra?" Naruto drawled leaning back against his boyfriend,

"Meh," Shikamaru and Shino walked up to them, not far behind them was Temari and Kankuro.


	17. Orochimaru

**Disclaimer-Do not under any circumstances, own Naruto. That pleasure belongs to the guy that created him and if I did known it, well it would a fantastic christmas present *hint hint***

**Enjoy, the next chapter will be the last. **

**Ch. 17-Orochimaru**

"Interesting choice Naruto," Shino tipped his head in agreement to the Nara words. Naruto smiled at them,

"Thanks for the sleeping agent Shino." Again Shino tipped his head. Temari and Kankuro walked towards them with frowns on their faces and Naruto was sure they would have pulled him aside if not for the growl that Garra let out,

"Stay away from him," inwardly the red head was surprised to see the hurt looks from his siblings but nothing could be done as it was time for Sasuke and Garra's match. Before Garra could teleport down Naruto grabbed his shoulders and kissed him, it was a short battle for dominance that Garra won and soon enough air became an issue. The two broke apart and smiled at each other, when Naruto smiled, Garra had a small smug smirk gracing his face. Naruto pecked him on the lips and then to the surprise of everyone, pushed him into the arena.

Garra gave a bark of laughter as he landed in the arena, amused by Naruto's antics; he knew that the blond wanted him to hurry up and win so that they could fight.

Sasuke glared at the sand shinobi, over the past month he had blocked Sasuke everytime he wanted to talk to Naruto. He was not feeling very friendly towards the foreign genin,

The proctor started the match and both boys went straight in. For civilans it was like two blurs, for those who were chunin and under it was quite hard to keep track and the jounin and above were quite impressed with the skill that the two boys were showing, however the sand shinobi were confused as Garra had never incorporated taijutsu into his fighting style before.

The Hokage looked on in pride at the excellent match before him, and inwardly giggled at the knowledge that Garra was planning to transfer to Konoha after the exams. While the match commenced behind the scenes the ANBU were quietly evacuating the civilians and children towards the Hokage mountain where a safe house was built, more ninja stood on guard ready for the invasion, even Naruto was wary.

Garra and Sasuke traded blow after blow and it became clear that when Garra refused to use his sand that he was holding back. Sasuke was very angry when this fact occurred to him, he was meant to be the best! Not some interloper who takes away his blond! _"Wait, my blond? when did I start thinking of that dobe as mine? No matter he is mine and an Uchiha always gets what they want!" _In the midst of his distracting thoughts Garra decided to act fast and used his sand. Sasuke was surprised when he found himself covered in sand that was slowly squeezing his body tighter and tighter, except for his hands which were held solidly away from each other. The Uchiha growled anf furiously tried to escape, but it was all over and before he knew it the proctor had sounded the win and Sasuke was declared the loser.

Naruto grinned from up in the stands when he saw Garra gain the edge over Sasuke in the few seconds that the boy was out of it. Garra released Sasuke from his sand prison, to the astonishment of those in the crowd who had believed the red haired jinchurriki to be unmerciful, Sasuke however did not accept his defeat gracefully and once again the crowd was astonished as the genin charged up a chidori and attacked his winning opponent! A flash of yellow went speeding into the arena and charged into the furious Uchiha, sending them both back a few metres. Once the dust had cleared it was evident that Naruto was holding Sasuke down as the other boy thrashed around, Naruto quickly knocked him out. The hokage's eyes flashed as he took in the scene,

"He is disqualified! There shall be no chance of him becoming a chunin at these exams, nor the next ones. What a disgusting display," looking around the Sandaime could see that those in the stands thought he was talking about Naruto and not Sasuke, _"Time to stop this," _"And I do mean Uchiha Sasuke." His cold tone shocked the crowd, their precious Sasuke not being allowed to compete, what a travesty! Orochimaru was also shocked that Sandaime could be so unmerciful, _"But this could help me get Sasuke, hhmm best not wait," _Sending silent signals to his men, a wave of feathers floated down onto the stands. It was not long before all the civilans and younger shinobi were asleep but those in the sound and sand invasion were definitely not happy to see most of the shinobi still up and very angry.

It became a battlefield of blood not to long after, the Hokage faced his opponent

"What an unpleasant sight, I had hoped I would not see you again my old student." Said student hissed,

"You should have killed me when you had the chance, Sarutobi now you are old and weak. I will kill you and wipe out this pathetic village!"The sound kage did not get a chance to do his evil cackle of doom (or as Naruto calls it "the girliest squeal he's ever heard") , as the leaf kage attacked relentlessly. Orochimaru soon regained his ground and fought back just as hard.

Meanwhile Iruka and Genma were seen near the sleeping people trying to draw the invading shinobi attentions onto themselves, it worked. Soon Iruka was leading the shinobi and Genma had doubled back to attack from behind their tatic was successful for a while but the enemy caught on and Iruka became trapped, and Genma could get to him too busy fighting off an ambush. Iruka snarled as he saw his partner getting overpowered and turned to those who had trapped him.

"You messed with the wrong shinobi, you brainless pieces of-" the leader of the group smirked,

"What can a mere chunin do, though I admit you are kinda hot." Iruka shuddered in disgust as the foul sound nin looked him over, and then smirked himself, chunin huh?

"We shall see." and with that he pounced cutting through the enemy like they were butter. Soon enough Genma and Iruka were fighting together again.

Kakashi meanwhile had his hands full trying to take an unconcious Sasuke to safety, but it seemed that Sasuke was a target as the enemys just kept coming. He was struggling to both protect Sasuke and keep fighting, until an ANBU appeared and began helping him. Waving Kakashi on, the ANBU did a jutsu that knocked out the first wave of shinobi, quickly shouting his thanks, Kakashi went to safety.

Both the younger and elder Ino-Shika-Cho teams were battling side by side. The fathers quite surprised at the skill their children were producing in the midst of battle,

"Come on daddy get back to work," Ino teased her father. After the disappointing display that she did at the preliminary Ino started to evaluate her life and realised a few things, mainly that she needed to become stronger and so went to her sensei and when he wasn't training Shikamaru decided to train her. She was a lot stronger now, but knew she needed to get better.

"Calm down Ino, come on boys you heard the girl back to work!"

With the Hyuuga faction, Neji had been healed and was fighting next to his cousin and and uncle. Hanabi had been put to sleep as Hiashi knew she was not ready for this battle no matter how strong she was. He was extremely surprised to see Hinata smashing through the enemy quite easily although the style that she was using looked like a mix between the Hyuuga style and another.

The other genin and their senseis were fighting off those that were inside the village, doing the best they could. Naruto and Garra had shushined near the Hokage as soon as they saw the feathers descend. Using their considerable talents they were able to stop the Sound four from raising a purple barrier jutsu and killed them. Orochimaru seeing that his minions were dead, seethed before performing the jutsu that would literally raise the dead. Garra, Naruto and the Sandaime stood still as the former hokages were brought to life and put under Orochimaru's power. The snake-like man sent the Yondaime to attack his own son and the Nidaime against his old pupil, Garra was given the shodaime to fight and Orochimaru was blocked by the sudden appearance of Jirayia.

"Not so fast my old team mate, Sarutobi recalled me when he found out about this little invasion of yours. Still haven't gotten over the fact they preferred Minato to you?"

Orochimaru ordered his puppets to kill their opponents and went in to decapiate his old rival. Naruto was upset at facing his father, whom he could see struggling to disobey Orochimaru, Minato could see the resemblence between himself and his opponent and had correctly determined that this was his son. However he could not disobey a direct order and attacked with tears in his eyes. Naruto observed that his father was not fighting to his potential and wanted Naruto to destroy him. Naruto did, fighting him for a while before coming up from behind and pulling out the kunai that kept him whole and alive. As Minato crumbled, Naruto heard him whisper,

"I am so proud of you, my son." Naruto's watered as he watched his father die once more and then turned his attentions toward the others. Despite being the founder of Konoha the shodaime was being beaten by Garra, who had to use every once of his strength and even some of Shuhaku's in order to destroy the puppet of the shodaime. The Sandaime, however was old and not as fast as he use to be leaving him in the precarious position of defence against someone who could die but for one aspect. Naruto utilized this particular aspect by teleporting himself and pulling out the kunai.

Jirayia put up a tough fight, but it was clear that Orochimaru had been training when the toad sannin was "researching" and soon he was knocked into another building unconcious. As he was going in for the kill shot, Orochimaru was stopped by Naruto who just smirked at the infuriated sannin and began to fight. Normally Naruto would not be able to defeat such a powerful foe, but his first opponent did not want to fight his son and therefore nowhere near full strength. The snake sannin had been battling another sannin of near equal strength, he was a hell of a lot weaker after that bought with Jirayia. A fact Naruto used to his advantage as he decimated the snake man, draining his chakra and just about killing the traitor to Konoha. Eventually Orochimaru was forced to his knees, with a kunai to his neck arms useless and tied back. Iruka and Genma had appeared soon after the fight between Orochimaru and Naruto had began. Genma extrtemely surprised at skill Naruto was showing and Iruka extremely proud of his little brother, _"Always knew you could do this Naruto, good job brother."_

"Hokage-sama, may I kill this traitor?" Naruto's voice was cold and sharp, surprisng Genma, Jirayia(who had been awakened) and the Hokage. Iruka knew that Naruto was in the persona of Kitsune. Garra just shivered at the power he felt from Naruto, it was intoxicating. The Hokage shook his head at Naruto,

"No, it was my fault that I did not kill him years ago. I will rectify my own mistake," Orochimaru sneered, his bloody and bruised face twisting painfully in order to do so.

"You are weak Sarutobi, always have been. You do not have the strength to kill me!" The Sandaime shook his head and with a few quick handsigns set Orochimaru alight. It took a while for the traitor of Konoha to die and it was not a painless death, but all there felt it was just, considering the lives that Orochimaru had ruined, the people he killed and those children he experimented on.

**Well I do hope you enjoyed that, as I said well typed above the next chapter will be the last**


	18. Epilogue

**Ch. 18-Epilogue**

"So Baki is your new Kage?" Naruto asked his partner, Garra nodded and then gave a small smile.

"He has allowed me to become a citizen of Konoha, a shinobi even as long as your Hokage agrees." Naruto snorted, he and Iruka had known that the kage of the Sand was not happy to lose their only jinchuriki regardless of how they treated him while he was there.

"So now that they do not have you, they want you? How fucked up is that. Good thing you are going to stay here then, bet they were so pissed off when they realised how happy the old man was to have you and not reject you like they thought." Garra nodded, it was true but he was happy as long as he was with Naruto and to a lesser extent Iruka. Iruka had been very helpful over the past month since the exams, getting the two boys out of trouble and helping them move Garra's stuff into Naruto's apartment. Despite all the missions both Iruka and Naruto were getting as ANBU both were consistently up early and helping out. Garra and Genma both found it strange, but didn't complain.

Genma and Iruka were still going strong and they did have an active sex life which scarred everyone around them. The rookie nine were pushing them harder, especially when they found out that Naruto was ANBU. Neji had gotten over blaming everything on fate and was slowly integrating with the rest of society in a normal way, even having an amiable relationship with Hinata. Team nine had already decided on going to the next chunin exams and so trained for that. Team ten was the same and so was Team eight, all training themselves to the brink and a fair few had already been to the hospital for collapsing with exhaustion, Ino and Choji in particular. Naruto and Garra were the only ones to make chunin, however there was a good chance that Shikamaru and Shino would get tested privately for the chunin rank as neither of them had the chance to battle in the exams. Everyone thought it likely that they would ascend to the higher rank and their mothers had already started planning the celebrations, inciting a typical reaction from Shikamaru; "Troublesome."

Team seven on the other hand, had degenerated into pathetic squabbling. Surprisingly to Iruka and Naruto it was not because of Kakashi. Kakashi had apparently stepped up and tried to train Sakura and Sasuke together, but Sakura just wanted to watch Sasuke and the Uchiha was demanding to be taught the strongest attacks possible, a demand that the Hokage said, Kakashi was ignoring in an effort to stop the ego of the Uchiha growing to astronomical heights. Sasuke was insisting that Garra had stolen Naruto and it was his job to become stronger so that he may take what is his, as he was an Uchiha and Uchiha's always get what they want. Kakashi had begged the Hokage to give him another team and it had only been a month since the chunin exams! After spying on Kakashi trying his hardest to train the two properly and failing did Sarutobi finally agree, he could tell that the Hakate had turned over a new leaf. Sakura was sent to train under medic Nins and Sasuke, after treatment from a psychiatrist went to train with Ibiki and Anko, both Jounin under strict instructions what to teach the boy.

An aspect of Kakashi's life that had caused Sarutobi to realise the shift in his behaviour was a relationship. It appeared that in the face of being rejected by Iruka so many times, that Kakashi had finally given up and started dating a jounin with the T&I unit, Anko took great pleasure in making fun of the two. However her own blossoming relationship with Ibiki stopped her from going too far.

Garra had been promoted to chunin and was striving to become jounin and then ANBU like Naruto. Naruto had reclaimed his place as Shadow Kitsune and was partnered again with his brother. In terms of their relationship; Garra and Naruto's relationship was progressing quite slowly, neither had much affection growing up and they did not want to risk going to fast and then regretting it later because they hadn't known something. Both were satisfied with their relationship and their lives as a whole, even with Sasuke's demented thoughts and some villager's continuing prejudice.

**The End**


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